UNIVERSITY OF N C AT CHAPEL HILL
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FOR USE ONLY IN
THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2010 with funding from
Ensuring Democracy through Digital Access (NC-LSTA)
http://www.archive.org/details/capefearyadkinva1889cape
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EMBRACING
DESCRIPTIVE AND STATISTICAL NOTICES OF CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES,
AND STATIONS; INDUSTRIES. AGRICULTURAL, MANUFACTURING,
AND MINERAL RESOURCES; SCENERY OF THE ROUTE;
TRANSMONTANE EXTENSION, &c.
Illustrated wltli EngraYings made from Photographs
philadelphia;
Allen, Lane & Scott, Printers,
229-231-233 South Fifth Street.
ISS9.
ORGANIZATION
ape l^eap apd Yadkir^ Valley
Ivailu/ag ©ompany.
1889.
JULIUS A. GRAY President.
J. W. FRY . Gen'l Sup't.
ROGER P. ATKINSON Chief Engineer.
J NO. M. ROSE Secretary. •
R. W. BIDGOOD Auditor.
JAS. R. WILLIAMS Treasurer.
\V. E. KYLE G. F. and P. A.
GEO. M. ROSE Attorney.
DIRECTORS
K. M. MuRCHisoN, New York.
J NO. M. Worth, Asheboro, N. C.
W. A. Lash, Walnut Cove, N. C.
Ji'Lius A. Gray, Greensboro, N. C.
G. W. Williams, Wilmington, N. C.
Lvo. D. Williams, Fayetteville, N. C.
Ch.\s. p. Stokes, Richmond, Va.
W. A. Moore, Mt. Air>-, N. C.
J. Turner Morehead, Leaksville, N. C.
D. W. C. Benbow, Greensboro, N. C.
ROBT. T. Gray, Raleigh, N. C.
E. J. Lilly, Fayetteville, N. C.
. Offices.
FAYETTEVILLE, N. C.
GREENSBORO, N. C.
Cafe f :ea r asb Iabiii Galley
Sail WAT Ststeal
Hs Inception © ©radual 'I®po^re55 ® 'pinal ©ompletion.
1!
^jHE uninterrupted progress of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley
v^ I \\:\ Railway, and its unrivaled prosperity and steadily increasing trattic
since the granting of its present charter by the General Assembly
• of 1879, were only to be expected in the full development and
completion of a railwaj^ system which occupied the minds of progressive and
thoughtful men even as far back as the earlier days of the present centur)'.
This system embodied the great ulterior object of opening to the markets
of the world the rich territory of the Upper Yadkin Valley by connection
with Fayetteville as the head of navigation on the Cape Fear River. Even
at as distant a period as 1815 the immense advantages to accrue from the
fruition of this project caught and fixed the attention of leading men in
the legislature, and such connection by canal was favorably reported and even
undertaken'; but the obstacles opposing themselves proved insurmountable to
the crude progress of that da}', and the work was abandoned. But inherent
in the Cape Fear and Yadkin \'alley system was the \-ery life of North
Carolina's internal improvement — again and again to revive and make itself
felt until the time was ripe for the full accomplishment of the great and com-
prehensive design. Nearly sixty years ago a charter was obtained, and ground
broken at Fayetteville for the building of the Cape Fear, Yadkin and Pee
Dee Railroad; but it was met bj' difficulties — insuperable at that period — of
a want of familiarity with railroad work, the disinclination of a sparse popu-
lation to hazard their means in what they regarded as a doubtful experiment,
and the inability of the State to furnish resources for the e.xtension of the
work. For twenty years the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley system lay dor-
mant, within which period was pushed forward to completion the then whole
railroad mileage of North Carolina: the Raleigh and Gaston, the Wilmington
(9J
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILUAY.
and Weldon, now forming a great link of one hundred and sixty-two miles
in the Atlantic Coast Line, and the North Carolina Railroad, at present leased
by the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company, and making an important
part of that extensive system.
In 1852 a charter was granted for the Western (Coal Fields) Railroad,
extending from Fayetteville west through the counties of Cumberland, Moore,
Harnett and Chatham, which, with the large amount of stock taken therein
by the State, and by the aid of liberal subscriptions from the county of Cum-
berland, the town of Fayetteville and individual stockholders, was built to
Egypt, progressing no farther than that point when the outbreak of the war
suspended all further operations. Imperfectly worked as they were, the coal
mines of Egypt, and the Western Railroad, with its facilities for transporta-
tion, proved of incalculable service to the Confederate Government in the
struggle of four years which ensued.
Fourteen years elapsed. The political rehabilitation and reconstruction
of the seceded States had been accomplished ; and again this great system
of State internal improvement and material development demanded recogni-
tion and received it at the hands of the General Assembly of P679, which,
by an act ratified February 25th, authorized the consolidation of the West-
ern Railroad with the Mt. Air\' Railroad, and changed the name of the cor-
poration to that of Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway Company. At
the next session of the General Assembly, and again in that of 1S83, the
State surrendered her interests in the road, with some needed concessions,
to a compan)' of private citizens, who have been building wisely and vigor-
ously ever since the affairs of the corporation passed into their hands.
Almost immediately after assuming the management of the Cape Fear
and Yadkin Valley Railway, April 6th, 1881, the present company entered
into a contract with the directors of the Fayetteville and Florence Railroad
for the extension over its graded road-bed of the Cape Fear and Yadkin
\ alley to Shoe Heel, intersecting the Carolina Central Railway at that point,
and continuing on to the State line. Simultaneously the work of construc-
tion was pushed westward, trains were running into the city of Greensboro
on the day of the annual meeting of stockholders in 1S84, and earl)- in
autumn of the same year the southern extension tapped the Carolina Central
Railroad at Shoe Heel (now Maxton), in Robeson County.
On the 26th of July, 1883, a contract had been made with the directors
of the Southern Pacific Railway for the grading, tracklaying and equipment
of that road from the State line to Bennettsville, S. C. ; and b)' the 5th of
December, 1884, the great work was completed — a distance of one hundred
and fifty-four miles from Bennetts\-ille to Greensboro, with ample rolling
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. I 3
stock, station-houses, warehouses, and freight accommodations — while at the
latter city convenient connection was made with the Richmond and Danville
Railroad. But the green hills of Piedmont were now just in sight, while
the stalwart mountaineers of the Blue Ridge were waiting with eager eye
and heart intent for the advent of this agent of civilization and develop-
ment. With every mile of grading and construction the difficulties of
engineering were multiplied ; but there was little pause in the \\ork of ex-
tension, and very soon the road \\-ound its wa}' through the suburbs of
Greensboro westward, passing under the North Carolina Railroad within the
limits of the cit\'. On the 20th of June, 1888, excursion trains carried
thousands of people from every point along the line of the Cape Fear and
Yadkin Valley Railway to participate in the ceremonies incident to the cele-
bration of Mt. Air\'"s railroad connection with the great outer world — the
beautiful village h'ing under the shadow of the towering chain of the Blue
Ridge.
A branch road had in the meantime been laid to Millboro — in the vicinity
of the extensive factories at Franklinville and other points on Deep River —
connecting with the main line at Factor}- Junction, twelve miles east of
Greensboro; and on the 28th of December, 1888, the Madison Branch,
e-xtending from Stokcsdale to Madison, traversing a fertile portion of Rock-
ingham county, had been so nearly completed as to admit of running a
regular train schedule to within a few hundred j-ards of the town.
It is proper to say here that all the work of construction within the past
five years has been performed by contract by the North State Improvement
Company, incorporated in the year 1883, and composed of men of high
character and prominence in business circles, of which John D. Williams,
of Fayetteville, is president ; and the traveling public cheerfully bear witness
to the fidelity with which the \\ork has been done.
A ver>- significant fact in the history of the Cape Fear and Yadkin
Valley Railway it may not be amiss to note before proceeding to a compila-
tion of the descriptive gazette of the mineral, manufacturing and agricultural
resources of the different sections of North Carolina which it reaches and
renders accessible to the \\'orld's markets: no other raih\'ay enterprise has
interfered with its progress, or lessened the need of its completion. During
the past ten years of its present name, director}^ and management, together
with a few years previous thereto, the Western Division of the North Caro-
lina Railroad has been completed, that portion of the Carolina Central which
had long remained as a gap between Wadesboro and Charlotte has been
laid, the Salem Branch of the Piedmont Air-Line has been built, the Raleigh
and Augusta Air-Line has made connection with the Carolina Central at
14 CAPE FEAR AND YADKLX I'ALLEY RAILWAY.
Mamlet, the Wilson Short Cut, a branch of the Atlantic Coast Line, has been
finished — and other less important branches, extending into Virginia and South
Carolina, have been constructed or are in process of construction. Not one
has discredited the wisdom, weakened the importance, or proved a serious
obstacle to the completion of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway,
which — crossing the chief water-ways of the State and forming a direct line
through some of the finest region of the three geological divisions of North
Carolina — bisects it from northwest to southeast, aiming to make final con-
nection by the shortest route with the great railway highway at Cincinnati,
and combining finally that most admirable feature of railroading which
reaches out and penetrates the undeveloped back country, with its own great
seaport for an outlet, with all its advantages to hundreds of miles of interior
of its shipping, diversified manufactures and commerce. Lastly, it is note-
worthy that the increase of business of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley
Railway has kept pace with every mile of road built. No station along the
line has failed to swell the receipts; no branch has proven unremunerative
for the outlay; and the reports at every stockholders' meeting demonstrate
a largely augmenting volume of business.
Eastern "©ivi^ion.
FROM WILMINGTON TO FAYETTEVI LLE— ElGHTY-ON E AND SEVEN-TENTHS MILES.
WILMINGTON.
j^^^^ILMINGTON, the eastern terminus of the Cape Fear and Yadkin
( (r I ^'alley Railway, the largest town in North Carolina, and one of
|-'i^_S *^^^ most important ports on the South Atlantic coast, is situated
on the east side of the Cape Fear River, and (air-line) twenty-
six miles from its bar. In a direct line the city is distant but little over six
miles from the ocean.
More than a century ago a devastating storm formed what is now known
as New Inlet; this breach did not show itself in the channel until 1850, when
the Government made an appropriation of $100,000. Careful engineering
showed two water shoals and exits in the channel, and the draught of water
was reduced from twent}--two to twelve feet.
To remedy this evil the Government has expended from 1870 up to June
30th, 1888, something over §1,851,000, with substantial success, securing from
fourteen to fourteen and five-tenths least depth of water at the main bar
entrance, with a channel of sixteen feet depth twenty-eight miles farther to
Wilmington. Ci:)mbining this depth \\-ith average rise of tide of four and five-
tenths feet at the bar, and two and five-tenths feet at the city, loaded vessels
with a draught of sixteen feet can go from Wilmington to the ocean on a
single tide an\' da\^ of the year.
From the time this work of the Go\^ernment was commenced until 18S7,
the total commerce of Wilmington had increased from $13,500,000 per
annum to nearly $20,000,000, and its foreign exports alone from less than
$1,500,000 to over $8,000,000. The carrying out of the recommendations of
Captain Bixby, Chief Engineer, that the dike be finished south to Zeke Is-
land, so as to secure Smith's Island from further erosion by the ocean, with
the widening of the river channels to their full dimensions of two hundred
and seventy feet, will probably restore the original full depth of water. The
company's shipping facilities at Point Peter will be good, as sixteen feet depth
of water can be gotten there on tide. Their terminal facilities will be first-
class, with train yards of ample accommodations to transport their freight to
Point Peter, where lighters will carry it to the city wharves of the company.
(17)
1 8 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
CdALiNG Station.
In the descriptive gazette of the ITpper Cape Fear and Deep River Divi-
sion, a full report has been made of the work now going on at the Egypt
coal mines, giving an output of three hundred tons per diem. The careful
sketch of the transmontane extension, which concludes this hand-book, makes
it certain that the connection of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valle}- Railway
with the Norfolk and Western will give it large freights from the coal fields
of Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentuck)-. This will make necessary a
branch road to Southport, which offers exceptional advantages as the great
coaling station on the South Atlantic coast. Vessels putting into Newport
News for coal go in one hundred and eighty miles, and out the same dis-
tance ; Southport, from the beaten track, is twenty-three miles in and out.
Such unsurpassed advantages require no comment.
INIanufactukinc.
The manufacturing establishments are numerous, and man}- of them exten-
sive, classified as follows : —
. 5 steam saw and planing mills.
3 sash, blind and door factories. .
1 ice factory.
3 machine shops and foundries.
2 fertilizer manufactories.
I factory of pine wool matting fibre and pine wool cotton bagging.
3 establishments for the manufacture of clothing.
I ladies' and children's underwear factorj-.
3 carriage factories.
3 soda water and beer bottling establishments.
I chemical companj-.
I paint and oil manufactory.
1 dyeing- establishment.
I cotton mill.
1 stocking factory.
I marble works.
I creosote and acid works.
1 naval store manufactory.
2 packers and refiners of tar.
2 rice mills.
4 grain mills.
3 candy factories.
I alcohol manufactory.
This makes a total of 45 manifold and valuable industries.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
New Industries.
The Acme Manufacturing Company, occupying extensive buildings a few
miles from the city, has developed a new industry which is destined, probably,
to prove a ver}- important one. From the green straw of the pine (a material
which exists in inexhaustible quantities through all that section of the State),
they manufacture a fibre which distinguished surgical authority has pronounced
of exceptional value in the dressing of wounds ; carpet matting and bedding
are also made therefrom, which are durable, handsome, and free from insects,
to which the balsamic odor of the pine leaf is peculiarly obnoxious. But the
most important branch of this industr}-, in a commercial point of view, is the
manufacture of pine fibre cotton bagging, which, it is claimed, is in all respects
equal to jute bagging. From this pine leaf is also extracted an oil, antiseptic
and possessed of medicinal virtues. The Carolina Oil and Creosoting Com-
pany extensively manufactures creosote oil from ordinary pine wood, and
effectively prepares piling and timber against rot and the ravages of other
destructive agencies. The timber, after being subjected to a process which
thoroughly carbonizes it, is placed in creosoting cylinders, where it is
thoroughly impregnated with the oil, and is sent out for effective use for an
almost unlimited time. The company has a capacity of about thirt}' thou-
sand linear feet per day. There are, besides, the Wilmington and Champion
Cotton Compress Companies, occupying magnificent structures in the business
part of the city, with about an equal capacity of from twelve hundred to
fifteen hundred bales per day of twenty-four hours. This preparation for ship-
ment and movement of cotton, it will be readily seen, makes in the aggregate
an immense volume of business in the employment of hands, the transactions
at the banking houses, and the placing of a large amount of ready money in
circulation. The completion of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway will
increase the area of cotton production, and will thus benefit Wilmington as a
market for that staple.
The Growth of Wilmington.
The city of Wilmington is steadily increasing in population (and conse-
quently in dwellings and other structures), wealth, manufacturing and com-
merce. No better demonstration could be made of the enlargement of the
city's limits and of the number of those whose business or pleasure carries them
from one portion to the other da}' by day, than the fact that, while one
street-railway was discontinued for the want of adequate support, that now in
operation is paying what would be a satisfactory dividend on more than double
its stock. The best informed of its citizens estimate that the census of 1S90
will give it a population of about twenty-seven thousand, the increase being
mostly white.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
Exports.
The following official table gives the amount of exports in its leading arti-
cles for the year 1888: —
Cotton (bales) 162,993
Spirits turpentine (casks) 63,473
Rosin (barrels) 246,566
Tar (barrels) 63, 163
Crude turpentine (barrels) 21,572
Timber and lumber (feet) 36,679,509
Pitch (barrels) 8,489
Peanuts (bushels) 40,397
Cotton goods (packages) iiSH
Shingles 6,663,980
Besides the leading articles above enumerated, there is a large export trade,
foreign and coastwise, of cotton seed and cotton-seed oil, rice, peanuts, peas,
garden truck, melons and other fruits, &c.
Shippinc;.
The improvements made and being made by the Government work in the
harbor have been followed by a marked increase in the size of the vessels
entering port. An average tonnage for foreign sail has been raised from two
hundred to four hundred tons, though many vessels register as high as one
thousand or twelve hundred tons, with foreign steamers ranging from eight
hundred to seventeen hundred tons. The arrivals in port for the year 1888
were as follows : —
Foreign steamers 24 26,083 tons.
" sail 107 42,742 "
Total 131 68,825' "
American steamers 95 76,567 tons.
" sail .- 144 40,251 "
239 116,818 "
The New York and Wilmington Steamship Company's notably improved
business is a gratifying evidence of the city's increasing prosperity. The line
is now doing all that it can manage, and will undoubtedly in the near future
be forced to enlarge its service and transportation.
cape fear axd yadkin valley railway. 25
" Fisheries.
But the future, after all, is to develop the great industry of Wilmington —
the cultivation of its oyster-fields and fishing-grounds. With as fine an
oyster as is to be found in the world within a few miles of their doors, the
housekeepers at the market, unless very particular, are forced to put up with
a small, inferior oyster, as the genuine New River oyster is obtained in onh-
limited quantities, being transported across country in carts, and is eagerly
bought up by restaurateurs, to be generally served on the half-shell, where
the_\- are perfection, unless surpassed by the " Blue Points " of the New York
market. From Federal Point, along the coast for eighty or ninety miles,
with a width of from one to two miles, is a continuous sound filled with
vast oyster-beds thousands of acres in extent, and abounding in innumerable
choice fish of every description. Once connect this immense field for a
remunerative industry with Wilmington by rail (the distance is only a few
miles), and the city would straightway fall heir to a profitable business
amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and eventually millions,
annuall}-. Oysters, both fresh and canned, would be transported over its lines
of railway, seining stations would at once be established all along the sound,
and deep-sea fishing would be greatly increased. The business would find
eager customers at all the interior towns on the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley
Railway, whose people have hitherto been shut out from a good fish and
o}-ster market, and who covet these luxuries even more than the dwellers along
the coast.
The Water-Supply.
Wilmington is supplied with water by the Clarendon Water- Works Com-
pan\-, whose plant is situated immediate!}^ in front of the historic old mansion
of Cornelius Harnett. It is the combined standpipe and direct-pressure
system, with three duple.x Worthington pumps of a total capacity of three
million gallons in twenty-four hours, running through about twelve miles of
main pipe from four to twelve inches in diameter, to which is attached
one hundred and five public and seventeen private fire-hydrants. The aver-
age daily consumption of water is about five hundred thousand gallons. The
company has also commenced the boring of an artesian well, which, at the
close of winter, had attained a depth of five hundred and fifty feet.
Wh.\rf and Terminal Facilities.
The company has recently purchased property for terminus of road at
Point Peter, just at the confluence of Cape Fear and North East Rivers,
with a wharf front of thirteen hundred and sixty feet. Contracts have been
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
let, the work of pile-driving for the company's wharves was commenced on
the 15th of March, and the work will be completed by 1st of ]May.
Valuable property- has also been bought in Wilmington, adjoining the
Ocean Steamship Wharf, of one hundred feet under shelter, with one hun-
dred and thirty-seven feet front adjacent, the whole running back to Water
Street, and including two valuable brick buildings. The transfer of passengers
and freight from the terminus of the road to the company's wharves in Wil-
mington will be made by steam-feny and lighters.
It is confidently expected that the eastern extension \\\\\ be completed
by the close of the present year, which every branch of business in Wilming-
ton will feel immediately most beneficially. Besides the increased facilities for
obtaining timber offered to the workers in wood, and the nc\N field opened
for all descriptions of manufacturing, the merchants of Wilmington will
enjoy great advantages in lower rates of freight, and will be enabled to sell
almost any class of goods to country dealers at any point on the road as far
west as Greensboro, as cheaply as they can be bought at Richmond or
Baltimore.
Wilmington to the Health or Pleasure Seeker.
With a mean annual temperature of sixty-three degrees, and a mean hu-
midity of fifty-seven degrees, Wilmington offers to the tourist, in a hygienic
point of view, attractions not to be surpassed by any part of South Florida
or Georgia. Here the winds hardly ever blow from one quarter for more
than forty to forty-eight hours, it is nearly entirely free from fogs, and is as
exempt from epidemic diseases as it is possible for a place to be. In a con-
tracted area, embracing Southport and Wilmington, the climate is semi-trop-
ical, and snow rarely ever falls. On the afternoon of February 21st, of this
year, the slow-moving leaden clouds gave the people of Wilmington a treat,
and great flakes fell thick and fast for an hour, covering the ground to the
depth of an inch or two. The writer watched with much amusement the
wild delight of )-oung and old in their welcome of the rare visitor, and he
was assured by one aged citizen, whose cheeks were aglow with the exercise,
and his hat crushed in by a snowball, -that they "hadn't had such a good snow
in fifteen years." As a summer resort Wilmington offers to the tourist and the
invalid advantages which are unparalleled by that of any other point on the At-
lantic coast. Rapid and agreeable transit by shell road, steamer and railway has
been provided to Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Sound and "The Rocks," at
all three of which the hotel accommodations are e.vcellent, and during the
season that is daily witnessed which is possible nowhere else from Maine to
Florida — the visitor is transported up to the very surf, to mingle with the
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 29
sportive bathers, b\- the locomotive, which would almost seem to be striving
to lave its heated sides in the tossing, foaming waves. The surf bathing is
safe and delightful; the waters of the sound offer a wide area for yachting
and sail-boating, while the fishing is superb — Spanish mackerel of great size,
the blackfish, bluefish, pigfish, flounder and other species being caught in
great numbers. The last General Assembly of North Carolina also fixed
the permanent encampment of the State Guard at Wrightsville, assembling
in July, which will prove an accession to the pleasant features of that resort
during the season.
The hotel accommodations of the city of Wilmington will now compare
favorably with those of an}' other city in the South. The Orton, an ornate and
commodious edifice, recently constructed on North Front Street, with its
elegantly furnished chambers, its parlors fitted up with c\'ery luxur\', its
exquisitely appointed dining-room, the careful and polite attention of its
employes, and, most important of all, its perfect aiisnic, offers to the voyager
a pleasant house of rest during his journeyings, or to the invalid a beautiful
home, supplied with every comfort during the months of winter, and crowned
with every attraction during the heat of summer. The guests of the Orton
Hotel have the privileges of the fishing and hunting of the Orton plantation,
one of the princely possessions of the builder and owner of the hotel. Colonel
K. M. Murchison, of New York. Here are about nine thousand acres of
"preserved" land, upon \\'hich is situated the old homestead, and about it
lingers still the aroma of an historic past, for here was once the capital of the
Colony and the residence of the Roj'al Governors. Here, too, are the ruins
of old St. Philip's Church, built in 175 i, to which was presented a silver com-
munion service by George III. of England; but the brier and the vine have
possessed themselves of sculptured lintel and plinth, dank weeds invade the
broken chancel, silence enwraps the crumbling wall, and the gray, majestic
ruin is given up to "age and memories of eld."
The City's Government, &c.
The streets of the city are moderately well-lighted by both gas and elec-
tricity, while three steam fire-engines, with hook and ladder companies and
numerous hose-reel teams, are relied upon to prevent a recurrence of the
disastrous conflagrations which have twice within the past five years swept
over the fairest portions of the city. Like all old towns, Wilmington lacks
regularity and symmetry in its architecture. It can boast of but few public
or private buildings notable for beauty or costliness, though there are man\'
handsome churches and elegant private residences. But its City Hall and
Opera House may well evoke the pride of an}- communit}-, and challenge
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
the admiration of the most finished connoisseur of correct and tasteful archi-
tecture. No finer specimen of the pure Doric exists in this country within
the knowledge of the writer. Perfect in proportion, simple and graceful in
unity of design, its exterior is accompanied by a fitting interior of lofty
halls, broad passages and spacious chambers. The Opera House is a beau-
tiful hall, capable of accommodating over one thousand persons.
Miscellaneous.
The people of Wilmington are impulsive and warm-hearted, and hospitality
to the stranger within their gates is to them an obligation as sacred as to
the Arab in his tent ; they never seem so happy as when welcoming and
entertaining a convention or other large assemblage of visitors. Some of the
most prominent business men of the South are influential leaders in the com-
mercial circles of this community; and their legal bar, always distinguished for
ability, now numbers some of the foremost men of the State.
The public and private schools are numerous and excellent, the municipal
government is well administered, and the financial condition of' the city
excellent.
Excavations have been made for the new Government building on Front
Street, which will be an imposing edifice — a great accession to the city's archi-
tecture.
At Wilmington are located the machine and construction shops of the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (the most extensive in the South), turning
out an immense amount of first-class work.
Besides the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway, Wilmington is the
terminus of the Carolina Central Railway, the Wilmington, Columbia and
Augusta Railroad, the Wilmington and Weldon Branch of the Atlantic Coast
Line, and the Wilmington and Onslow Railroad (projected).
Agricultural and Timber Resources, &c.
Contiguous to Wilmington the land is very fertile : a clayey soil, impreg-
nated with phosphatic matter, ocean salts, and alkalies, it was undoubtedly
uplifted b)- the ocean in ages past. With even a slight admixture of organic
matter, deeply plowed in, vegetation is rendered luxuriant, and nowhere are
soil, climate, and atmospheric conditions more favorable to the trucker and
market-gardener. Grapes are grown of delightful flavor, wonderful size and
in boundless profusion, many of the varieties producing a second crop during
the season. The Lower and Upper Cape Fear sections of the road embrace
portions of the counties of New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender, Sampson,
Bladen and Cumberland, and gradually rise from the sea level, by an easily
ascending champaign, to an altitude of a little more than one hundred feet
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 33
at Fayetteville. L}-iiig direct!)- upon the route of the Hne, portions of the
country are sparse!}' sett!ed, tlie !and is t!iin, and generous crops are denied
to t!ie farmer. A!ong t!ie water-courses, liowever — BIac!<; River, Cape Fear
and the creel<s, \v!iic!i are extensive and numerous — there is a ric!i a!!uvia!
soil, producing a magnificent yie!d in corn and cotton. A!l this area is sub-
ject to overflow in seasons of continuous rain ; but, w!ien spared tliis draw-
back: to t!ieir returns, spiendid harvests are reaped ; and nowhere is to be
found a better system of agriculture than exists in portions of the counties
grouped under this heading.
The flora oi this region is varied and exuberant; fifty-four different kinds
of wood were found by actual observation in a piece of land comprising four
acres — swamp, upland, and \\'oods. In addition to dogwood (used in shuttle
manufacturing), juniper, cypress (the material for the immense number of
shingles shipped from Wilmington everj- year), poplar, and the white and water
oaks, recent ofificial figures have placed the amount of yellow-heart, long-leaf
pine standing in this section, exclusive of Cumberland, at over one billion feet.
The completion of this division of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley
Railway will therefore not only give an impetus to agriculture and the other
elements of material prosperity, but it will render accessible a vast area* of
virgin timber land ; and the sawyers of wood and the makers of lumber —
the pioneers of new communities and increased population with every mile
of railway extension everywhere — will plant their machinery on creek, valle\'
and hillside, to secure the rich returns of these uncut forests, giving employ-
ment to hundreds, planting settlements, building villages, and infusing new
life and enterprise into all that section.
The farmers of these lower counties, notably Pender, Sampson and
Bladen, have alwaj's devoted much attention to the raising of fine stock, and
the yearly exhibits of good horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, at the Sampson
County Agricultural Fairs, attracted large crowds, and received favorable atten-
tion from all parts of the State.
The staple crops of this section are diversified and valuable : rice, peanuts,
the early truck of the market-gardener (peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, cucum-
bers, salads, asparagas, &c.), sorghum cane (the area in which has greatly
increased of late years), corn, cotton, oats and rye.
The grading and construction work on the road-bed of the Eastern
Division is rapidly approaching completion — bridge-work, trestling, putting
in of culverts, and all the other labor incident to placing the bed in readiness
for track-laying; the stations, sidings and water-tanks have been nearly all
located, and it is reasonably certain that at the date of this publication track-
laying will have commenced.
34 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIS I'ALLEY RAILWAY.
The Bridge over the Cape Fear.
At Fayetteville, a few hundred \-ards below the county bridge, a new
iron raih'oad bridge is now constructing by the company — four iron spans,
the approaches one hundred and ninet\- feet each ; the middle spans one
hundred and fift_\- feet each ; total length of bridge, six hundred and eighty
feet.
A single-span iron bridge also crosses Black or South River on this route.
FAYETTEVILLE.
Here abides a people with a histor}'. Here and there some quaint, old-
time building — a veritable landmark of the past — tells of its "vanished
glories;" in the beautiful cemeter_\', whose dead sleep to the soft plashing of
the waters of Cross Creek, the time-stained marble glints in the sunlight, and
is flecked with the shifting shadows of the swaying elms, as it perpetuates
the names and memories of the men oblivious now of all the triumphs
of human achievement, but whose commanding abilities, spotless integrity
and untiring energy made the Faj-etteville of the olden time great in business
and commerce.
■ Within a stone's throw of the accompanying illustration of Eccles Park,
one finds the site of the abode of Flora McDonald, about whose name
years but add to the pleasing romance which softens the rugged lines of
history — the gifted heroine inseparably linked in the records of the past with
every mention of the chivalrous but ill-starred Prince Charles Edward, whose
devotion to the House of Stuart brought her from the shores of her native
country, nearly a century and a half ago, to settle with a little band of friends
and adherents, in this quiet, far-away spot in a new and untried land. Not
a stone is left of the domicile which sheltered this noble Scotchwoman ;
but the spirit which inspireil her and the little colony of followers has not
abandoned the valleys and the hills which the}' made historic for all time; it
lives still in the stiu'diness of character, honesty, thrift and industry of their
descendants, now multiplied into an intelligent population throughout the
counties of Cumberland, Harnett, Moore, Richmond and Robeson.
A Great Inland Trade.
Fifty years ago Fayetteville controlled nearly all the inland trade of
North Carolina, with a large part of that of portions of Tennessee and Vir-
ginia. The merchants of Wilmington were accumulating fortunes in plying
avast and lucrative business with the West Indies; and the Cape Fear River
transportation of molasses, sugar, salt, iron, coffee and the goods of the North-
ern markets, to Fayetteville, the head of its navigation, was immense. Canvas-
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 37
topped wagons — drawn by two, four and six horses, with jingHng bells,
traversing hundreds of miles from across the Blue Ridge, winding over the
red hills of the rugged country about the Pilot and the Suaratown Mount-
ains— creaked slowly and heavily on, to the shout of driver and the crack
of whip, towards Fayetteville — the Mecca of trade, the El Dorado of mar-
velous riches in merchandise. These wagons were nearly all laden with the
products of their sections — butter, lard, bacon, beeswax, flour, hides, flaxseed,
back-country whisky and brandy — carrying back in exchange goods for the
country merchant and for home consumption; and they drove into the town
in long lines, grouping themselves about the different places of business
whence came the hum of traffic all day and often far into the night. The
country tributary to Fayetteville was networked with plank roads to facilitate
this great and continuous wagon travel, one line (the Western Plank Road)
being one hundred and twenty miles in length. But the "iron horse" was
more powerful than the road wagon, and a very large part of the back-
country trade of Fayetteville was diverted into otlier channels, from causes
which we need not go far to seek.
Note here that the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway system — con-
ceived in the days of the wealth and prosperity of the tidewater and Upper
Cape Fear section — lays the steel rail upon the disused old rut of this remun-
erative traffic, and its long trains bound with the swift life of steam-power
over the route of the slow-toiling wagon caravan ; from the seacoast to the
mountains, through some of the best settlements and most fertile counties of
the State, it is moving still onward, e\-ery additional mile signalizing the wis-
dom which had seized upon what nature had blazed out for a great high-
way of commerce.
Manufactures.
Fayetteville enjoys the advantage of very considerable water-power, fur-
nished by Cross, Blount's, Rockfish, and Beaver Creeks, running either imme-
diately through the town and its suburbs or the adjacent country. This
water-power may be immeasurably increased (the matter has been and is now
agitated by the citizens) by the reopening of the old canal, giving an unlim-
ited volume of water, with sufficient fall, from the Cape Fear River, and
pursuing a system which has recently achieved such wonderful results at
Columbia, S. C. The old canal-bed, some portions nearly intact, can be
traced from its beginning, a few miles north of town, through the environs,
to the original basin, near the corner of Hay and Winslow Streets, and
which the boys fifty years ago used as a skating-pond.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN lALLEY RAILWAY.
The Fayetteville Cotton Mills, located on the site of the old Mallett factory,
only three-fourths of a mile from the business centre of the town, is one of the
new manufacturing enterprises of the progressive city. Since the organization
of the company, last spring, two dams have been constructed, together with
factory building of two stories, forty-eight by one hundred feet, besides picket-
house, offices, '&c. All the machinery is of the most improved patterns, pur-
chased direct from the manufacturers, and comprises sixteen self-stripping cards,
ten spinning frames, two thousand and eighty spindles, speeders, railway
heads, &c.
Commencing with a capital of $32,250, with the privilege of an increase to
$100,000, the success of the company has been very gratifying since its organi-
zation. The energy of the younger business men of the community has been
evoked to guarantee its success, and representative men of all classes of the
population have subscribed of their moderate means to the establishment of
this important industry in their midst. It is a most satisfactory illustration of
what persistent and concerted effort can accomplish upon the basis of a limited
capital.
The Bluff Mills, on Beaver Creek, a three-story brick building, with
boiler-house, cotton storage warehouse, &c., are run by a sixty-inch turbine
wheel, and have three thousand and fifty-six spindles and sixty-two looms ;
they consume about thirteen hundred and forty pounds of cotton per day.
The mills produce thirty-six hundred and twenty-two yards of sheet-
ing daily; the machinery here is also of modern pattern. The mills
employ a well-organized army of from one hundred and fifty to one hundred
and sixty competent operatives, who, with their dependencies, make up a
comfortable town of five hundred or six hundred inhabitants. There are
seventeen hundred and thirty-six acres of land and fifty odd tenement-
houses belonging to the factories, and two stores supply the hands with the
necessaries of life. The mills turn out a fine class of three-yard sheetings and
Nos. 7 and 10 yarns; also cotton paddings. The products are very popular ;
about one-half of them, including all the yarns, are sold in North Carolina.
The New York agents are Woodward, Baldwin & Co., and in Baltimore
Woodward Baldwin & Norris, through whose hands the " Lake George "
and "Lebanon" 4/4 heavy brown sheetings of the Beaver Creek and Bluff
Mills find their way throughout the world. A stock of these goods are
kept in the store in Fayetteville, where the president has his ofificc.
The Cumberland Mills, situated on Beaver Creek, adjacent to Bluff Mills,
comprise the main building of four stories, fifty by one hundred feet ; dye-
house, thirty by ninety feet; lapper-house, thirty by fifty feet; store-room,
twenty by fifty feet. There are eighty-six looms and twenty-eight hundred
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 4 1
spindles, run b}- one liundred and twenty horse-power, and emplo)-inj^ one hun-
dred and twenty operatives ; they consume twenty-five hundred pounds raw
cotton per day, with a total production of twenty-seven hundred pounds goods
daily, which consist of fine cottonades, seamless bags, twines and carpet warp.
These goods are sold in New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. The labor is
all native, and, where taken from the country around and taught, not gen-
erally satisfactory.
There are, besides, a bucket factory now in successful operation, for the
manufacture of well-buckets, pails, tubs, measures and other articles of wooden-
ware, to \\'hich the company expect to add the machinery for making spokes,
helves and shuttles; one of the largest establishments in the South for
the manufacture of turpentine stills (for which they have a lucrative trade
all over the Southern country) together with tobacco flues ; a factory mak-
ing turpentine hacks and other tools, which employs a large force and
carries on an immense business ; a plow manufactor}', supplying a large per-
centage of the farmers of all that region ; a clothing manufactory, newly
established and giving steady work to forty or fifty hands; a sash, blind
and door factory; two wood-turning factories; one iron foundry; the exten-
sive Merchant flour and corn mills; three grist mills; one very complete flour
mill (patent roller process); one wool-carding mill; one cotton-seed oil mill
(running night and day at the height of the season); one wagon factory ; one
carriage factory (known as one of the most extensive in the South); one
candy factory; two soda and beer bottling establishments ; one brick-yard (very
extensive) — besides the numerous lumber and planing mills, cooper and black-
smith shops demanded b)' the large and increasing business of the community.
Other industries are projected, and stock has already been taken for the
erection of another cotton mill. Increased interest in the subject of manu-
facturing is observable in the community, and a realization of the fact that
substantial prosperity is proportional with the number and extent of those
enterprises which give steady employment to large numbers of people, supply
a self-sustaining, thrift)' population, utilize the raw material of our varied
products, and increase the circulation of ready money with the aggregate
monthly wages of toiling thousands.
Here, too, are located the shops of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valle_\'
Railway Company, which, enlarged in dimensions and added to in machiner}-
and force with the increasing needs of the compan}', now cover a large area of
ground and turn out an immense amount of work — ^comfortable and beauti-
fully finished passenger cars, box and flat cars, &c., constructed under the
advantages of little cost and great convenience accruing from the unlimited
timber resources developed along the line of road.
42 cape fear axd yadkin valley railway.
Mercantile Business, &c.
The receipts and shipments of cotton (exclusive of factory conAunption)
and naval stores will aggregate, in value, not less than from $2,000,000 to
$2,250,000 per annum — besides those of the other varied products of the
countr\- tributary to Fayetteville. The mercantile trade embraces a large scope
of territory — much of it fertile and very productive — and the volume of both
wholesale and retail business is gratifying and increasing; of the former — in
dry goods, staple and heavy groceries, fertilizers, hardware, agricultural imple-
ments, &c. — Fayetteville can boast of some of the most extensive houses in
the State.
Attractions for Northern Tourists.
Fayetteville is surrounded on all sides by great forests of pine, with a
genial and salubrious climate, which is abundantly evidenced by the remark-
ably low death-rate of the city's population and the unusual average longevity
of its inhabitants, and is rarely subjected to extremities of cold, the ther-
mometer during the severest winters hardly ever falling below twenty degrees.
Especially is it a pleasant place of sojourn during the spring months, so trying
in the far South and still held in the grasp of winter at the extreme North.
Here nature bestirs herself and thaws out under the quickening effects of
soft winds and a balm}' atmosphere, while summer comes on with hesitant
footfall to blow into full flower the bursting buds of springtime.
Seekers after health or pleasure alike want the comforts, the conveniences
and the luxuries of life, and these are supplied without stint at the new Hotel
La Fayette. Spacious rooms, with the best modern furnishing ; tasteful parlors
and drawing-rooms; broad stair and hall ways; cosy balconies; a delightfully
situated dining-room ; comfortable offices and billiard tables — all combine to
offer the best features of first-rate hotel entertainment. As to the table, there
is no appeal from the unerring judgment of the traveling public; and this
"autocrat of the (dinner) table," headed by that affable boii vivaiit, the
"drummer," sounds everywhere the praises of the kitchen and larder of the
Hotel La Fayette.
Ihe town and its suburbs (notably incomparable Haymount) afford many
delightful drives and rides, diversified by level roadways, picturesque streams,
and bits of exquisite scenery.
Characteristics of the People, &c.
Fayetteville has lost much of the quaint and picturesque in streets and
buildings which so charmed the visitor in past years. The iron front and the
CAPE FEAR AND VADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 45
mansard roof have displaced the plain brick \\all and flat roof which made up
whole blocks of stores, pierced by archways and corridors to the gloomy
warehouses in the rear, and reminding one of nothing so much as the archi-
tecture of the benign and simple rule of the Missions on the Pacific coast.
The market-house remains almost alone to tell of how they put together
and ornamented brick and mortar when this centurj- was young. The illus-
tration conveys better than description an idea of its perfect proportion, grace
and symmetry. The town hall surmounts the market proper, and the building
occupies a broad plaza at the intersection of the four main business thor-
oughfares.
But there is much of the old town in the present generation. Clannish, as
befits their Scotch-Irish stock, the people are nevertheless open-handed and
generous; they are cultured without ostentation, and gifted with the simple
refinement of nature. The uprightness and integrity of its men, and the beauty
and virtue of its women, fail not yet to uphold the ancient prestige of the
venerable town.
Miscellaneous.
The people of Fayetteville have ever been keenly alive to the importance of
utilizing to the fullest extent all the educational advantages vouchsafed to them,
and in past years some of the best and most thorough high schools of the State
have been there located. Though there are still several private schools in dif-
ferent sections of the city, well patronized, as well as a large and flourishing
kindergarten, the graded school system now absorbs a large percentage of the
children of Fayetteville. The building is situated on Haymount, the western
suburb of the town, and, with ten departments and an efficient corps of
teachers, offers to the community fine educational facilities. An excellent
public librar}- elevates and refines the literary taste of the people, while ten
churches for white and colored invite the different denominations to the worship
of God.
A merchants" and cotton exchange, with a numerous membership, with,
ample facilities for handling, weighing, grading and storing cotton, &c., gives
compactness and concert of action to the business interests of the community,
and ample banking facilities demanded by the increasing mercantile and manu-
facturing operations are furnished by one State and one National bank.
On the banks of a beautiful stream, Cross Creek, which winds its way with
graceful curve through the most beautiful part of the city, crossed here and
there by handsome bridges, is Eccles Park, with gaily-painted boats, handsome
boat-houses, grounds for croquet and other out-door pastimes. In pleasant
weather it is a place of popular resort, and the stream, alive with boating
46 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
parties, and the lawns thronged with ladies and children, present an attractive
and animated scene.
Including all the suburbs which actually merge into the corporate limits,
Fayetteville contains a population of about six thousand, though it is credited
with much less by the last census.
At the last legislature a charter was obtained for a street-railw^ay, which
the extended area of the place renders desirable and expedient.
The Wilson Short Cut, a branch of the Atlantic Coast Line, has its present
terminus at this point.
Cape Fear River transportation of freight and passengers by steamer to
Wilmington and intermediate points has always been an important factor in
the commerce of Fa\-etteville, and has been the main channel for the receipt of
heavy articles of merchandise. The steamers are comfortable, and the voj-age
of one hundred and twelve miles to Wilmington pleasant. The boating busi-
ness on the river has recently been almost entirel)' consolidated into one
company.
The rich bottoms of the Cape Fear River produce immense crops of corn
and forage, and the land contiguous to Fayetteville — undulating, light, sandy
loam, with cla}- subsoil, and well watered — is well adapted to truck-farming,
fruit-raising and the growth of grapes.
A large floral nursery in the suburbs of the city and several fruit nurseries
in the adjacent country are among the profitable industries at this point.
About four miles north of Fayetteville is Tokay Vineyard (one hundred
and forty-seven acres), one of the largest, and certainl}', in the number of \'ari-
eties of grapes and other fruit cultivated, the most interesting, east of the Rocky
Mountains. Here the Scuppernong, very luxuriant of growth and prolific
of yield, occupies many acres of the vine\'ard ; the remainder of the area is
devoted to the cultivation of the different trellised table grapes and other
fruits — peaches, pears, melons, &c. Ample cellarage, presses, gas-house, store-
houses, &c., render Tokay Vineyard complete in every respect ; while the ele-
gant mansion of the proprietor, grounds beautifully laid off and adorned with
statuary, pleasant walks and drives, make it one of the " show places" of the
State, which the Faj'etteville people take a pride in showing to the stranger.
The vintage of Tokaj- amounts to about forty thousand or fift}- thousand
gallons of wine per annum — Scuppernong, Concord, Delaware, &c. — besides
which great quantities of table grapes are shipped abroad.
<i)oUtl]ern te)iVt5ion.
Fayetteville TO Bennettsville, s. c— Fifty-seven miles.
HE completion of the Southern Division of the Cape Fear and
Yadkin Valley Raihva\', a little more than four years since, has
been attended by very beneficent results, not only in the largely
increased traffic enjoyed by the road, but in a still greater measure
y the opening out and development of a country especially rich in agricul-
tural and forestry resources.
This division traverses Cumberland, Robeson and Richmond counties in
his State, and Marlboro count)', S. C, to Bennettsville, a distance of fifty-
^■ven miles, and places accessible to market one billion three hundred and
"ty million feet of yellow-heart long-leaf pine, besides almost inexhaustible
ipplies of maple, poplar, juniper, cypress and other useful woods.
After leaving the sand-hills and Big Rockfish, a few miles out from Fay-
. teville, the traveler surveys a fine farming country clear on to Bennettsville,
elding excellent crops of corn, sorghum and cotton, with a thrifty population,
i'lostly of Scotch-Irish extraction (in the North Carolina counties), and quick
t- seize upon all the advantages and opportunities vouchsafed to them.
A great impetus has been given to the production of naval stores by
is southern extension, and the cutting of timber and sawing of lumber
ve grown into a business of vast extent. The pufifing engines of the mills
;et one at every station, and the forests resound, as the train speeds along,
^th the axe of the woodman. Timber trains are frequently carried into Fay-
:eville requiring the pulling power of two large engines, and the freight-books
'' the company show that the business is steadily increasing. It is a gratifying
i.:t, as showing the general thrift and prosperity of the State, that compara-
i. ely little of this lumber is shipped out of North Carolina — all the orders
ming to the millers that they can possibly fill from nearer home, the Piedmont
: .;tion constituting a very large and important customer.
Hope jMills.
At the first station, seven miles from Fayetteville, are situated the large
; I' tories of the Hope Mills Manufacturing Company, of which is appended
t!u: following description : —
No. I mill, brick building, two hundred and eighty-five feet by fifty feet ;
■ >;ie-half two stories, and one-half three stories high. Dye-house one hundred
(49)
50 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILUAY.
and ten feet by thirty feet ; modem machinery. Dry-house twenty feet by
thirty feet; modern machinery. Spreader-room and machine-shop, thirty feet
by sixty-six feet ; two stories.
Mill fitted up \\ith Kitson compound spreaders, twenty-eiglit roller cards
and railroad heads, six drawing frames (American make), two slubber and five
fly frames (Higgins' make), fifty-six hundred Excelsior spinning spindles, spool-
ers and reels, circular warper, one Denn double-head double-linker electric-stop
warper, six twisters and four beaming machines, one hundred and ninety box
looms — twenty-two of these are sixteen harness. All the machinery is in first-
class condition. Goods made — cottonades and cheviots. Help good and well-
behaved.
The company have fifty houses in No. i village, also saw-mill and store.
The village contains two churches and one schoolhouse.
Mill is fitted up with Grennell sprinklers and first-class fire-pump, and
is run entirely by water, of which there is a full supply.
Hope Mills No. 2, situated about a mile and a half south of No. i village,
is an entirely new mill and village, all built within the last twelve months.
The mill is three hundred and forty-six feet long by sixty feet wide, two
stories high, and is filled with the very latest improved machineiy. It will be
run entirely by water, of which there is an abundance.
The spreader-room will contain one cotton opener and preparer and four
loppers (Potter & Atherton's), card-room, twenty revolving flat cards (Platte's,
English make), Howard & Bullock electric-stop drawing frames (Providence
machine), a slubber and fly frames.
The spinning-room contains nine thousand Whitin's gravity spindles, Hope-
dale upright spoolers, Denn's double-head electric-stop warper.
The weave-room contains Wood's reels, winders, and beaming frames, and
Knowles' looms. Shafting, hangers and pulleys furnished by W. Sellers & Co.,
Philadelphia, and water-wheel by the Holyoke Company.
This mill will be lighted by electricity, and is also fitted up with the Gren-
nell fire system. Also has powerful pump with outside hydrants. It is now
about ready to operate ; will manufacture fine }'arns and fine ginghams. The
structure is built of brick.
The village contains sixty well-built houses, all nicely painted. The water
is first rate, and the location healthy.
The capital of the Hope Mills Manufacturing Company is $300,000.
RED SPRINGS.
No point on the line of the road can show a more rapid growth, with
a consequent increase in population, business and industries, than this thriv-
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 53
ing village. Five years since Red Springs was a little settlement in the
woods; now it is a fair town on the highway of railway travel, with several
stores, two hotels, an excellent newspaper, mills, cooper and blacksmith shops,
&c. Then the inmates of one or two families made up the sum of its inhab-
itants ; now it numbers its population by the hundreds, with church and
school facilities rarely enjoyed by a place of its size.
There are ten saw and planing mills, including a sash, blind and door
factory within the limits of the corporation or in the immediate vicinity,
which together employ over two hundred and forty hands (representing, with
the average per capita of families, a population of about one thousand, sup-
ported by these industries), and pay out from $700 to §800 per week in wages.
Private enterprise has also here built a narrow-gauge railroad through the
heart of the pine forest, for the saving of time, labor and money in hauling
the logs to the mills, and it has also been eagerly utilized by the farmers of
the vicinity in getting their products to market.
Red Springs derives its name from that which invested it with interest
and importance among the people of this section of the State long before
the days of railroads : its chalybeate springs of iron in solution, very highly
charged, magnesia and sulphur. Their medicinal virtues have been thoroughly
tested and long known, and the increase of visitors to enjoy for the season
the healthful waters of these exhaustless fountains is notable eveiy j-ear.
The springs (of which there are two) are unlimited in supply, and apparently
have no bottom, for the " longest pole " in all the country around has never
yet succeeded in making " soundings."
MAXTON.
Prior to the change of its name on application of its citizens, this place
rejoiced in the curious appellation of Shoe Heel. This, we may reasonably
infer, from the Scotch element predominating so largely in Robeson county,
was a corruption of Ouhelc, a clan exterminated in pitched battle by the
Clan Chattan during the reign of Robert of Scotland, and immortalized in
Scott's romance of the " Fair Maid of Perth." Maxton is a flourishing town,
and is destined to acquire additional impprtance from its favored position
as the trade centre of the rich agricultural communities of Richmond and
Robeson counties, and a considerable scope of country in South Carolina.
The shipments of naval stores and cotton are very large, and the business of
general merchandising is steadily on the increase.
Maxton is an unusually intelligent community, marked by great refinement
in its social circle, and enjoys exceptional religious and educational advantages.
54 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
The population is now about seven hundred, the rate of increase being very
great within the past four years. It is at the intersection of the Cape Fear and
Yadkin Valley and Carolina Central Railways.
BENNETTSVILLE.
Bennettsville is the county-seat of Marlboro, S. C, one of the best cotton-
producing counties in the State, ranking second in the amount of its annual
crop. The land almost verifies the description of " level as a floor," and farm-
ing is done still on almost the grand scale of the days prior to the war.
The planters " pitch " for big crops and fertilize extensively even the naturally
rich soil of heavy loam subsoiled with clay. A part of the county furnishes
excellent grazing, abundantly evidenced by the number of fine cattle, farm
horses and mules, and blooded stock for riding and driving.
Bennettsville, since the completion of the road in December, 1884, has
enjoyed exceptional prosperity. An industrious population has been attracted
thither for the purpose of engaging in mercantile business, rendered profitable
by the impetus given to agriculture, to invest in property or engage in indus-
trial enterprises. The people are proud of their town, and are admirably
sustained in this feeling by a good municipal government. They are liberal
supporters of churches and schools, of which the consequence is a moral and
law-abiding community.
A prosperous banking establishment meets the needs of this enterprising
business community, and a charter has been obtained for the establishment
of a cotton factory.
The court-house is a very fine structure, of unique but attractive style of
architecture, occupying the centre of a spacious square fronting the business
part of the town, with an interior admirably arranged and fitted up.
The contemplated extension of the Southern Division of the Cape Fear
and Yadkin Valley Railway to Camden Junction offers comparatively few
difificulties in engineering after bridging and crossing the Pee Dee, will in-
crease the tributary area of rich farming territory, and will furnish important
railroad connection with lines running south, via the Three C's, South
Carolina and Wilmington and Columbia Railroads.
INTERMEDIATE STATIONS.
Lumber Bridge, McNatt's, Shandon, Wakulla, Floral College, John's,
Hasty, McColl's, and Tatum's are all busy and important stations on the
line of the Southern Division, plying a brisk trade in general country mer-
chandise, and making large shipments of cotton, naval stores, timber, lum-
ber, &c. In the cotton season the freight receipts on this part of the road
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
57
necessitate all the dispatch possible in moving the crop, and frequently tax
the rolling stock to its full capacity. Exclusive of Wilmington, Bennetts-
ville ranks third among the stations on the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley as
a shipping point.
Fayetteville is now enjoying a splendid trade from this Southern Divis-
ion. The merchants of Lumber Bridge, McNatt's, Shandon, John's and the
other stations above mentioned in South Carolina are prompt-paying and
valuable customers for large orders in dry goods, staple groceries, fertilizens
and general merchandise. Even in the former days of inland and wagon,
trade, the business of Fayetteville, gathered from Robeson, Richmond and
South Carolina, was more profitable than that of the western country, as the
cotton brought to market by the farmers and planters of that section always
commanded ready money, while the western commodities — hides, tallow, but-
ter, flaxseed and other grain — were exchanged, in barter, for the articles car-
ried back for home consumption.
Few persons would recognize the city of to-day with the town of ten
years ago. One side of Person Street has been almost entirely rebuilt with
fine brick edifices, while Hay Street is a picture of architectural beauty,
from Donaldson Street to Market Square. The taste of the householder
and real estate owner has kept pace with this business enterprise, and the
suburbs are beautified by many elegant and tasteful residences.
COURT-HOUSE, GREENSBORO, N. C.
Upper ©Oipe "p'ear ©,nel te)eep t^iVer "©ivi^ion.
From fayetteville to Greensboro— ninety-seven miles.
^B>^'S^ig|HTS division leads through the counties of Cumberland, Harnett,
Moore, Chatham, Randolph and Guilford to Greensboro, at the
junction of the North Carolina Railroad with the Richmond and
Danville. The hill countrj' now succeeds with the route of the
line inland, and \ery rapidly after leaving Gulf, an altitude being reached at
Greensboro, eight hundred and fifty feet above sea level, about seven hundred
and fifty feet higher than that at Fayetteville, more than two-thirds of which
elevation is attained in a distance of fifty miles.
Fayetteville is the centre of a large extent of countr)', embracing part of
Cumberland, the counties of Robeson and Richmond on the south and south-
west, and Moore and Harnett on the west and northwest, which has been for
many years one of the great naval-stores-producing sections of the South, and
Fayetteville was second only to Wilmington in the exportation of this great
commercial staple. At one time there might be counted in the environs of the
city twenty-eight turpentine distilleries, working on full time throughout the
season. With the lapse of years much of the virgin pine has of course been
boxed, but vast tracts of uncut long-leaf still lie in easy access of the road.
Similar in some, but not in all respects, to the soil of the Southern and Eastern
Divisions, the light loams and clayey loams of the upper Cape Fear continue
for about one-third of the distance embraced in this division, after ^\•hich the
country changes entirely in soil, topography and geological formation. The
gray soil intermixed with gravel, and the red and dark-colored soils of the re-
gion of slate and granite, appear. The country is broken and rugged, and on
all sides crop out evidences of the existence of extensive and valuable mineral
deposits ; the long-leaf pine disappears, and the oak forests supenene, very fine
bodies of which extend along Deep River, and on both sides of the railway line
to Greensboro. Walnut, hickoiy and dogwood also abound along the route,
extensive shipments of which are being made by different individuals and
companies.
Minerals.
Mention has already been made of the coal mines of this region, and the
matter will be more specifically treated farther on. As to the quality of the
(6i)
62 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
coal, the highest geological authority has pronounced it " well adapted for fuel,
cooking, gas, and oil. It is a shining, clear coal, resembling the best specimens
of Cumberland. It ignites easily, burns with a bright, clear combustion, and
leaves a very light purplish-gray ash. It swells and agglutinates, making a
hollow fire. It yields a shining and very porous coke, and is an excellent coal
for making gas or for burning." (Report of Admiral Wilkes to the Secretary
of the Navy.) Lying along these coal beds are deposits of ball-iron ore, as well
as other ore 'beds along the line of railway or in the vicinity within an area of
twenty by forty miles; A geological report of Professor Emmons gives the
general character of these ores : —
Sesquioxide of iron 69.73 67.50
Protoxide of iron 0.84 47- 5°
Phosphoric acid 06
Sulphur 09 3.39
Carbon 3i-30 34-00
But of all the mineral deposits of this region the most valuable ore bed is
found at Ore Hill. The veins seem to be without limit, several being from
fifteen to eighteen feet in thickness. Many of these veins have been opened
and worked at various times, producing mainly limonite ore. It makes an ex-
cellent, tough iron, being porous and easily smelted. From samples selected by
the late Professor Kerr, State Geologist, out of a heap of several hundred tons,
the following analyses are by Genth and Hanna : —
Silica 1.42 3-79
Oxide of iron 82.02 83. So
Lime and magnesia 1.30
Phosphorus 00
■ Sulphur 00 .44
Professor Kerr says : " The purity of this ore 'is conspicuous, and the quan-
tity seems to be very great."
Lying some distance farther up Deep River are outcropping beds of mag-
netic, and, in one or two instances, specular, iron ore, which during the civil war
were worked with gratifying results, producing iron of superior quality.
Between Sanford and Egypt red and gray sandstone, and a little farther
west granite, exist in large quantities. These stones are already being quarried,
and their demand for building purposes will steadily increase with the present
facilities of transportation and the rapid progress of the country.
In Moore county a very superior quality of mill stone is found in immense
strata, bath on upper Little River and at the extensive works of Parkewood, on
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 65
Deep River, and " Moore County grit " is, without exaggeration, favorably
known the whole countr>' over.
Soapstone is found at various points in the upper part of Moore and along
the line of Chatham counties. These beds were successfulh" worked \-ears ago,
and constituted a profitable industry to that section. The demand for soap-
stone in the great markets of the world is practically limitless, and, accessible
as the railway has now made these quarries, we may expect them to be soon
again in active operation. A bed of soapstone, which promises to be quite valu-
able, has recently been discovered in Guilford count)'.
Capital seeking investment will gradually realize the value of the gold
mines of Moore and Randolph, which, imperfectly worked before the war with-
out the present improved mechanical appliances, yielded in man\- cases very
satisfactory returns.
Water-Power.
A recenth' published descriptive gazette of the Cape Fear and Yadkin
Valley Railwaj- says of the manufacturing enterprises located upon Deep
River: "The Deep River factories, so located that a common terminal point
will place the most remote within four miles of the branch line, are the Frank-
linville, Cedar Falls, Randolph, J. M. Worth, Randleman, Naomi, Columbia,
"Central Falls, and Enterprise Manufacturing Companies — nine mills, twenty-
four thousand six hundred and sixty-eight spindles, six hundred and ninety-
six looms, ninet}'-one carders, emplo)-ing twelve hundred operatives, consum-
ing seventeen thousand pounds of raw cotton per da}-, and freighting in and
out thirty-seven thousand pounds of raw material, supplies, merchandise and
manufactured goods daily. These factories feed and clothe four thousand
persons." A competent authorit\- has estimated the full water-power of
Deep River at nine hundred and fift)' thousand spindles, and of the Cape
Fear River, above Fa}'etteville, at two million, making a total of three mill-
ion spindles, all within the scope of less than eighty miles of the road,
embraced entirely in the Upper Cape Fear and Deep River Division.
The Deep River factories, since the date of the above estimate, exhibit a
very gratifying increase in the value of plants and machiner\-, extent of oper-
ations, output of goods, &c. The number of mills remains the same, a new
factor}' having been erected and one removed to another point on the line of
road. The looms have been increased from six hundred and ninet}'-six to
one thousand and twent}--eight, the carders to over one hundred, while there
has been an addition of about fifteen per cent, to the force of employes.
The freighting in and out of raw material, &c., has advanced from thirty-
seven thousand to about fifty thousand pounds daily, with a corresponding
66 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
augmentation of raw cotton consumed. All the mills are supplied with the
latest improvements, and nearlj- all lighted by electricity.
Agricultural Products.
The farm products of this division are varied and important, and com-
prise cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, sorghum cane, Irish and sweet potatoes,
fine cabbage, onions, &c., &c.
MANCHESTER MILLS.
At the first station west of Fayetteville are the ^lanchester jNIills, occu-
pying a building two hundred and twenty-five by forty feet, and running
nineteen hundred spindles and fifty-five plaid looms. The mills manufacture
plaids and stripes, which are sold all over North and South Carolina and
Virginia. There is a forty horse-power of water with a sixt}- horse-power
engine.
McFADYEN SPRINGS.
In the vicinity of Manchester, lying upon Little River, are the McFadyen
Springs, enjoying a very enviable reputation in all the adjacent country for
the remarkable medicinal efficacy of their waters in the cure of cutaneous
and scrofulous diseases, and the alleviation of all liver complaints and ail--
ments growing out of dyspepsia and disordered stomach. So strongly im-'
pregnated are these waters with the chemical constituents which make up
their analysis that the wet earth at the bottom of the spring and on its
sides is used with wonderful effect as a plaster in eruptions, sores, &c. The
]SIcFad\-en Springs have been little advertised ; and, even with the present
railroad facilities, no effort has been made to bring them into public notice.
The accommodations are very rude and primitive — simply a few cabins, which
are used by Fayetteville families and those in the vicinity; but in coming
years JMcFadyen Springs will doubtless attain the prominence which they
deserve.
Spout Spring and Swann's Stations are thriving points on the line, the
former the centre of a great lumber milling business, and the latter making
large shipments of naval stores.
JONESBORO.
The traveler greets this gladly as one of the most attractive towns on the
line of the Cape Fear and Vadkin Valley Rail\va\-, presenting an appear-
ance of thrift and prosperity, with its neat residences, numerous stores and
church spires and school belfries, which is very inviting. Long established
CAPE FEAR A.XD VADAV.V lALLEY RA/LIVAV. 69
as a trading point for a prosperous section, Jonesboro has of late years be-
come quite an important cotton market, receiving and shipping large quantities
of the staple every season. The cultivation of bright yellow leaf tobacco
has also been largely entered into by the farmers of Moore county, which
the progressive spirit of the place has met by the erection of two commo-
dious tobacco warehouses.
A few weeks ago a very important forward step was taken in manufac-
turing by enterprising citizens of the community, by the establishment of a
cotton mill, with complete plant, improved machinery, &c., for the manufac-
ture of yarns and carpet fillings.
There is a banking establishment to meet mercantile and other demands,
wagon and bugg)' factory, a good newspaper, with many other adjuncts of a
flourishing communit}-. The people are moral and law-abiding, and pay
special attention to the support of their churches and schools.
SANFORD.
Sanford is at the intersection of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley and
Raleigh and Augusta Air-Line Railroads, whence connection is made with
Charlotte, Wilmington, and Raleigh. The town draws a lucrative trade
from the rich farming segments of three counties lying in a corner, and has,
besides, sash and door factory, marble works, and several other remunerative
industries. It enjoys also the advantage of a well-established and excellently-
edited newspaper. In the vicinity is a quarry of excellent brownstone, already
successfully worked.
THE EGYPT COAL MINES.
The Egypt Coal Company, which purchased the Egypt mine estate — com-
prising twelve hundred acres of coal land, twelve hundred acres of timber land,
and three hundred acres in a high state of cultivation — have, at the date of this
publication, very nearh- restored the machine plant and accomplished the un-
watering of the mine, the shaft of which is four hundred and sixty-three feet in
depth, with twelve hundred feet of gangway, numerous slopes, chambers, &c.
The machinery has been put in excellent repair, pit-head erected and all the
timbering restored; the steam used in the operation of the machinery has been
produced from refuse coal l>'ing upon the dump for over twenty years — a
remarkably strong proof of its excellent quality — and, to guard against every
possible contingency, the company have laid a pipe line one-fourth of a mile in
length from a spring which will furnish an ample supply of water.
The present machine plant and the openings in the mine have a capacity of
about three hundred tons per da\-, and the company anticipate no difficulty in
JO CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN lALLEY RAILWAY.
mining and marketing an output of that amount within the State. The
property, prior to its coming into the hands of the present management, repre-
sented a cash capital of S-50,ooo for machiner\-, developments and improve-
ments, and the additional outla_\' with the present company has already reached
into the thousands. Hitherto, operations have been conducted under great dis-
advantage, and at expense for labor and material far in excess of what the same ♦
now costs — changed conditions b\' which the present company will undoubtedly
profit. A branch line of railway a mile long, extending from Egypt Depot to
the shaft of the mine, has been graded and cross-ties delivered, so that the work
will be completed by the time the mining company is ready to ship coal.
A brownstone quarry of approved quality has also been opened, and when
fully uncovered the shipments of its excellent building material will doubtless
be much increased.
An extensive saw-mill has been erected on the company's property, and a
brick-yard will soon be in operation.
A town site — Egypt Depot — has been laid off, and an architect has drawn
plans for several buildings which will be erected forthwith.
Gulf-, Goldston, Richmond and Ore Hill are the next four stations west
from Egypt, all showing a steady and gratifying increase in business and popu-
lation each )-ear.
Near Ore Hill are the
MOUNT VERNON SPRINGS,
whose waters have been carefully anah'zed, and undoubtedly possess unusual
medicinal efficacy. The_\' have become a popular sinnmer resort, and, with con-
templated enlarged and improved hotel accommodations, \\\\\ continue to at-
tract numbers of visitors.
SILER CITY.
Siler City, having tributary to it an excellent agricultural section, has grown
rapidly, and has been quick to seize upon the opportunities presented by rail-
way communication with the outside world, in bending every effort to build up
its business in merchandise, and enhance the \-alue of its industrial pursuits.
Here is located a good boarding and day school, under the management and
supervision of careful and efficient instructors, and offering the advantages
of excellent ph)-sical, mental and moral training.
Siler City has a large tobacco warehouse, several lumber and planing mills,
together with a number of prosperous and energetic business houses and men.
A gratifying evidence of the growth and thrift of the surrounding country is
found in the success attending the exhibitions of the annual agricultural fair
held at Siler Cit\\
WATER TOWER, GREENSBORO, N. C.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
STALEY.
This busy place has literally sprung into existence with the westward exten-
sion of the road. Emerging from the woods with the advent of steam and the
flying train, its growth has been lusty and its prosperity remarkable. Its popu-
lation is about two hundred, with nine stores, shuttle factory, chair factory, saw
mills and planing mills within its limits and in the immediate vicinity. It never
fails to make an excellent exhibit on the freight-books of the company, as it is
one of the shipping points of the Deep River Cotton Mills, and its merchants
carry on a brisk trade in the shipment of poultry and other farm products, while
they deal largely in furs and dried fruits.
The lands of this section and on to Liberty produce a very fine grade of
bright yellow leaf tobacco, growing also some of the finest fruits of different
varieties raised throughout the extent of the line.
LIBERTY.
Liberty is beautifully situated, and presents a very pleasing appearance to
the incoming railway passenger. The extension of its limits and the growth of
its population have been very marked within the past two or three years, and
the citizens now claim a total of between five hundred and six hundred inhab-
itants. An act of incorporation has been recently granted by the legislature,
and many contemplated and actual improvements evince the spirit of progress
and enterprise. A fine school is established here, which, for discipline, efficiency
and curriculum of stud}', has already taken high rank among the educational
institutions of that section. A large area of country surrounding Libert}- is
admirably adapted to sheep husbandr}'. The land is well drained, high and dr}',
offering fine ranges for flocks. The mutton raised is not very large but of excel-
lent quality, and the wool clip is good.
Julian, Factor}' Junction (from which extends the Millboro Branch, con-
necting with the factories at Deep River) and Pleasant Garden are the last
three stations on the road leading into Greensboro.
GREENSBORO.
Greensboro, the beautiful gateway into the fair Piedmont region, merits
with emphasis the importance given it as a great "railroad centre:" — the
point of junction of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley and Richmond and
Danville Railroads, with the various extensive connections of both s}-stems,
which embrace the main and branch lines leading south and southeast to
Wilmington, Bennettsville and Fayetteville; north to Danville, Richmond,
74 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAIUVAY.
Washington and beyond ; east to Raleigh, Goldsboro and New Berne ;
soutliwest to Salisbury, Asheville and Charlotte ; west to Madison, Winston,
Salem and Alt. Airy. Twenty-two passenger trains arrive at and depart
from the depots of the city during the twenty-four hours ; and, as the time-
tables of a large part of these include only the hours of morning from
8 to lo A. M., and evening from 8 to ii p. M., the stir and bustle of moving
baggage-trucks, hurrying passengers, crowded waiting-rooms, rattling omni-
buses, hacks, &c., give the traveler a pleasing impression of the progressive
life of the city, which a walk through its crowded thoroughfares and along
its blocks of handsome business houses will confirm and strengthen.
Not through accident has Greensboro attained its present prominence on
the highway of railway travel. For more than half a century its leading
citizens — among whom were men entrusted, by virtue of their commanding
abilities and high character, with the most weighty public responsibilities, the
helm of State government and high place in its councils — have been ever
keenly alive to the material advancement of the people through great meas-
ures of internal improvement, devoting their energies, time and money not
only to the development of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley. Railway
system, but to the promotion and completion of other important roads in
North Carolina. Those who have come after them have not been careless
of the example or unworthy of the trust committed to their hands, and
active in the business circles of the town to-day are men who have done a
giant's work in weaving about it the network of steel rails which gives it
profitable traffic and smiling prosperity.
The City's Growth.
The fine surrounding farming country and its many other natural advan-
tages would never permit Greensboro to stagnate or languish ; consequently
its whole history is that of one of the thrifty, flourishing places of the State.
But its growth within a decade has been very marked; its progress during
the past five years has been especially gratifying, since the completion of the
Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway in 1884. The compact area enclos-
ing the city proper, and finding its centre in the public square containing
the court-house and United States Government building, has proven inade-
quate to the needs both of business men and householders ; and the exten-
sion of the suburbs — beautified by tasteful residences and neat cottages, and
enlivened by machine-shops and other industrial establishments — has been
constant and rapid. It is not extravagant to say that the growth of the
suburb of South Greensboro has been phenomenal. Five years have trans-
CAPE FEAR AXD YADk-fX lALLEV RAILIVAY. J-J
formed it from a straggling settlement into a town of itself, with comfort-
able and elegant abodes, artistic flower yards and grounds, and beautiful
streets.
An estimate of population must of course be approximate, but that the
increase has been great is beyond question. Including extensive environs
south, southwest, west, and east, a careful computation, based on the number
of new buildings erected, the increased volume of business, and the largely-
augmented vote at the last election of the two townships in which the town
is comprised, would give Greensboro a place in the next census of not far
from seven thousand inhabitants. This includes all the suburbs which ha\'e
hitherto had no place in the count of the population.
Public Works and Improvements.
Nature's generosity and man's energy having made Greensboro a city, its
people have resolved that it should have the garniture, furnishing and conven-
iences of a cit)-, and for the past few j-ears the work of improvement has been
systematic and steady.
The fall of 1888 saw the completion of an extensive system of water-works,
of the combined standpipe and direct pressure form, with about three miles of
main pipe, fifty public and three private fire-hydrants, the tower being located
in the vicinity of the railway depots — a prominent and imposing object which
catches the e\'e of the traveler miles away. An ample supply of water is fur-
nished for the manifold uses of the communit}-, and for the most serious emer-
gencies of fire.
Sidewalks have been laid of Fa\"etteville brick, of veiy excellent and lasting
material, the roadway paved with granite blocks quarried at Flat Rock, near
Mt. Ain,'; and Elm Street, the main business thoroughfare, presents a hand-
some and attractive appearance throughout.
The fire department is excellent, the citizens universally giving it their
cordial co-operation and support, with a full realization of its importance. A
commodious and well-arranged building accommodates the steam fire-engine
and hook and ladder truck, with the horses in training, and the quarters of the
superv'ising night watchman. The department includes hose-reel teams, con-
veniently located in different quarters of the city, and other improvements are
in contemplation — the putting in of an electric fire-alarm, &c.
The city is lighted by both gas and electricity, and few places in the South
can claim a better or more effective system, taking in not only the business
streets but those ramif}'ing out into the remote suburbs.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
Manufactures.
There are now, within the cit}' proper, or comprised in the hmits of its dif-
ferent suburbs : —
3 iron foundries, makintj plows, turbine and other wheels, ironware,
castings, &c., &:c.
2 sash, blind and door factories — one very extensive in its operations,
just fitted out with new machinery, demanding immense supplies of
raw material, and turning out a large amount of first-class work, which
is shipped b)' all the railroad lines to different points.
3 manufactories of plug tobacco.
1 cigar factory.
2 wagon factories.
1 carriage and buggy factory.
2 shoe factories.
I large merchant flour and grain mill (with another in course of com-
pletion).
I ice factory.
I spoke and handle factor)-.
I steam beer-bottling establishment.
Electric-light plant.
Gas-works.
I mattress factory.
1 terra cotta factor}'.
4 brick yards.
2 manufactories of tinware.
I manufactory of Tar Heel Liniment.
Throughout the countrv adjacent the fruit and vegetable canning industry
has assumed important proportions, with every indication of future remunera-
tive returns.
It will be seen that, in comparison with its wealth, influence and importance,
Greensboro's manufacturing interests are in their infancy. This condition of
things will not endure long. Outside capital will be attracted hither by the
unparalleled advantages offered ; enterprise and public spirit at home will
speedily utilize all the means available; cotton and woolen mills will follow
the wood-works, these to be supplemented by the furnace and the foundry.
Mekcaxtile Business, &<;.
The rapid building up of South Elm Street, as the demands of trade
passed the bounds of East and West Market, as well as the lively traffic now
daily seen on South Davie Street, are gratifying evidences of the annually
increasing business in all the branches of merchandise. Besides the local
trade which a tributary productive territory must throw into the hands of its
merchants, Greensboro's unrivaled facilities cannot fail to make it the entrepot
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
for a large surrounding area of country accessible b)' rail, and the future will
continue to swell the volume of its wholesale and retail business in dry goods,
groceries, hardware, ironware, agricultural implements, sash, doors, blinds and
other building material, &c., &c. Facts are more satisfactory than generalities,
and statistical information, carefully gathered from time to time, shows that the
aggregate of merchandise purchases of the city has increased nearly fifty per
cent, in the past three years.
The trade in dried fruits of this market is enormous, and includes apples,
peaches, pears, cherries and the different berries. Great improvement has been
made by the growers in the drying and treatment of fruits, and the goods
shipped from this point obtain a high rating in the Northern markets. The
fruit is reckoned, not by bushels, one may sa}', but by immense bins and great
car-loads, forty of the latter in dried apples alone being shipped by one firm
last season. This business is of some months' duration — from late spring until
autumn — and gives employment to hundreds in picking, drying and marketing.
. Such a business community demands proporcional monetary and financial
facilities, and these are^unished by three banks, exclusive of the savings and
deposit institution, one of which (the National Bank of Greensboro) showed,
during the twelve months of 1888, average daily deposits of $15,221.64, and
average daily checks paid §15,302.55, making it safe to place the total volume
of the bank's transactions at §40,000 per day.
Business Organizatiox.
The mercantile circles of the city are unified and incited to concert of
action by the Chamber of Commerce, which embraces in its membership the
leading and influential citizens of the place, whose efforts as an organized body
have already been potent in advancing the general welfare, and the Chamber
will not fail of the accomplishment of much good with the city's future
growth.
The Land and Improvement Company has been recently established, with
the object, primarily, of pushing the trade in leaf tobacco by the erection of
suitable buildings ; it will also prove useful in systematizing the sales of real
estate, placing investments, &c.
Tobacco Interests.
The tobacco business is in the hands of pushing, aggressive men, who do
not suffer it to flag, and finds its facilities for marketing, sales, handling of
the leaf and manufacture in three large sales warehouses, nine prize factories,
three plug and twist manufactories, and one cigar factory (the latter four
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
already mentioned under the heading of "manufactures"). The city's rightful
place as an important tobacco market has not hitherto been fully appreciated,
or, rather, fully utilized ; but strenuous efforts have of late been made to
accomplish this, with substantial results. The compiler is permitted to take
from the last annual report of Julius A. Gray, president of the Chamber of
Commerce, the following figures : —
"The leaf tobacco sold on this market from October, 1887, to
October, 1888, aggregates 2,276,173 lbs.
That purchased by our dealers on other markets during the
same period 792,3 1 1 lbs.
Making the total handled bv Greensboro tobacconists 3,068,484 lbs."
The above creditable exhibit is dwarfed by the developments of the
present season. Such has been the impetus given to the Greensboro tobacco
business that a good crop year would have increased these figures by at least
one-half. Within the past three years the number of prize-houses has risen
from three to nine, with a corresponding forward movement in the manufac-
ture of the leaf. The warehouses are selling tobacco from the twelve coun-
ties of Guilford, Surry, Stokes, Forsyth, Davie, Davidson, Randolph, Chatham,
Orange, Alamance, Caswell and Rockingham, besides large and frequent ship-
ments to them from Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina. No market in
the State has access by rail and \\agon to a larger and more productive
area of the " Bright Tobacco Belt," and this, ^\ ith its unexcelled shipping
facilities and advantages of transportation to all outside markets, must event-
ually place Greensboro abreast of the foremost tobacco towns of the South.
School Advantages.
These are exceptionally fine, and will be examined with satisfaction by
all contemplating investment in propert}' and a permanent residence among
the people of this favored community. The Txhite graded school of the city
proper has an enrollment of about four hundred and thirt}', with an average
daily attendance of three hundred and thirty-five pupils, with efficient super-
intendence, complete departments in the different educational branches, and
a full corps of teachers. Bellevue Academy, in South Greensboro, offers the
same facilities to the children of that part of the city.
Greensboro Female College, occupying an imposing structure in the centre
of beautiful and spacious grounds at the head of West Market Street, is the
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN ]\-iLLEY RAILWAY. 85
denominational high school of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in
North Carolina, and enjoj-s a wide area of patronage throughout the South.
The course of study is thorough, with painstaking preparations in fitting
feminine accomplishments, and the discipline wise and effective, making the
institution well deserve its high character and enviable popularity. There
are, besides, several good private schools; and it will not be amiss to note
here that county and town are worth}' of each other, for Guilford probably
contains more long-established, well-sustained schools within its borders than
any other county in the State.
Public Buildings.
If not in the number, certainly in the attractive architecture and artistic
finish, of its public buildings, Greensboro may invite comparison with other
towns of its wealth, size and population. The graded school building, in
North Greensboro, is graceful and elegant in style, with an interior admirably
fitted and arranged for its purposes, and an oratorium for musical, dramatic
or literary entertainments.
The county court-house is a model for buildings of the kind. The
architect succeeded in blending the durable and ornamental with unusual
taste and skill, and presented to the people of the county a piece of work
well worthy the expenditure of money required.
The Government building occupies a very eligible location on South Elm
Street — a massive and ornate piece of architecture. It contains the post-
office and the offices of the Federal Go\-ernment.
The National Bank of Greensboro has just completed a new building at
the corner of South Elm and East Washington Streets. It is of brick, with
granite facings, cornice and other exterior work, while the interior is finished
in beautiful native dressed pine, with an unusual completeness of arrange-
ment in vault, banking-room, i)resident's and directors' rooms, &c. Two
handsome stores also form parts of this commodious structure. The second
story has been specially arranged for and is rented for a term of years to the
Young Men's Club of Greensboro and the Chamber of Commerce, artd the
third story has been arranged for and rented for a term of years to the
Masonic Lodge of Greensboro.
A Pleasant Place of Sojourn.
A climate never approaching the severity of the North in winter and
particularly delightful in summer, a healthfulness unquestioned, and freedom
from the virulence of malarial diseases, enable Greensboro to offer no mean
attractions to the delicate invalid or the pleasure-seeking tourist. Especially
86 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
during the months of May, June, July and August is it a charming abiding-
place. Within two or three hours' ride of the matchless sceneiy of the
Piedmont and Blue Ridge country, and the chalybeate, sulphur and alum
springs which make that section celebrated, while but little farther in point
of time and distance from the pleasures of Carolina Beach and Wrightsville
Sound, the Northern traveler may rest here as his " point of vantage," to
seek "green fields and pastures new" in a day's jaunt or a week's journeying
in any direction.
The Benbow and McAdoo Houses furnish first-rate hotel accommoda-
tions, combining all the conveniences, comforts and luxuries of table, room and
attendance which the experienced voyager demands and expects in these
enlightened days. So well known is the excellent character of the enter-
tainment afforded by them that the city has long been the Sunday stopping-
place of the traveling salesman, who puts no more important question to
himself on the eve of one of his rare periods of rest than Falstaff's query:
"Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?"
The City of Flowers — Characteristics ok the People.
The captivated fancy of the visiting stranger has given to Greensboro the
name of " City of Flowers," and the welcoming host who leads him, through
trim parterres, a wealth of foliage and a profusion of flowers, across the
hospitable threshold, fixes the colors of the charming picture with all the
refinements of cultured home-life. If the love of flowers be the indication of
not only an aesthetic taste but of a high moral nature, these are surely good
people, for their greenhouses seem as dear to them as their dwellings, and their
gardens are tended with more than the zealous care that watches over the
golden harvest of the husbandman.
Many elegant residences adorn the principal streets, and if the architecture
is not alwaj's fashioned strictly after approved and classic models, it is ever
beautiful and attractive, with the additional merits of comfort and convenience.
Greensboro is an eminently conservative community — nor could its citizens
well be otherwise, for their fathers were a homogeneous people, fostering the
same traditions and cherishing the same modest aims and aspirations ; here
lived, and still live, the Quakers and the Nicolites, whose impress is ever strong
where they move and have their being. This generation deems it best, even for
a new South, to "prove all things : hold fast that which is good;" and while it
would be difificult to imagine them in the vortex of a feverish " boom," losing
their heads over new methods and new ideas, it would be still more difficult to
imagine them given over to indifference and apathy in the face of progress and
substantial improvement.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
89
Miscellaneous.
Just beyond the northwestern Hmits of the town is Green Hill Cemetery,
occupying a commanding position which overlooks the city, and here has re-
cently been placed, with fitting ceremonies, a bronze statue of the Confederate
Soldier — an admirable work of art, where, on each lineament of the strife-worn
veteran, war's grim tragedy is traced.
There are published in Greensboro one daily and three weekly newspapers,
and one monthh* (college) magazine.
In close proximit}' to the depot of the road are the offices of the president
of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway, general superintendent, chief
ei^gineer, and their assistants. These occupy a commodious and handsome
building, with adjoining valuable property.
The countr}' immediately surrounding Greensboro is not only very pro-
ducti\'e of fine fruits for shipment abroad and home consumption, but is largely
devoted to the growth of all kinds of fruit trees adapted to climate and soil,
and there are numerous large nurseries within a radius of eight miles — in fact,
this whole section is one of the great fruit nurseries of the South. Some idea
of the extent of this business ma}- be gained from the statement of the fact
that the freight charges on fruit-tree shipments from this point annually aggre-
gate from §7,000 to §8,000.
A great increase has also been recently made in the growth of green-
house and exotic flowers, the large Pomona Nurseries in the vicinity of the
city having constructed extensive greenhouses and made varied plantings of
trees and slirubs for the trade in floriculture. Not onl_\- this, but the great
advantages offered for grazing b}- the lowlands and the territory bordering
the streams have given an impetus to grazing and stock-raising, and there
is every probability that Guilford will soon be ranked as one of the "dairy"
counties of the State.
"Piedmont and IVjoUntain "©iVi^ion.
From Greensboro to Mt. airy-seventy miles.
RAVERSED by this division are a portion of Guilford and the
counties of Rockingham (tributary), Forsyth, Stokes and Surry.
Here, indeed, is a goodly heritage of the treasures of earth and the
bounties of nature waiting through the silence of centuries for
dc\'elopment at the hands of man. All through the western and northern
portions of Guilford county, fringing the sinuous banks of Haw River, stretch
majestic forests, never yet profaned by the touch of the woodman's ax ; clirtging
to the spurs and reaching up from the defiles of the Suaratown Mountains,
and overshadowing with their boundless canopy the valleys of the Yadkin and
Ararat Rivers, are immense quantities of the different oaks, poplar, walnut,
hickory, wild cherrj', ash, dogwood and locust.
The soil is the red and yellow of the gneiss and granite geological formation,
and is susceptible of enormous yields of the cereals, tobacco, fruits and vegeta-
bles. In the mountain section proper of this favored division are grown
apples pronounced among the finest in the world, cabbage of enormous size and
remarkably fine quality, while the crops of potatoes, hay, oats, rye and buck-
wheat are wonderful. In a country so exuberant and prolific it is not surprising
that we find fine horses, cattle, and sheep ; it is the natural home of the
grasses — the land of the dairy and its rich products. The greater portion of
this division is also part of the "Bright Tobacco Belt ;" and, although its cul-
ture has increased very rapidly within the past few years, the development of
the tobacco resources of this fertile region has hardly begun.
Minerals.
No part of North Carolina excels this section in the extent and value of its
iron deposits. Through the centre of the first county in the division —
Guilford — stretches a range of magnetic ore for more than twenty-five miles,
than which no higher grade can be found anywhere in the world, and which is
now constantly shipped to the furnaces of the North by rail. The same high
grade magnetic ore is found near Danbury, in Stokes county, and immense
(93)
94 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
quantities lie along the Yadkin River. Dr. Lesley, State Geologist of Penn-
sylvania, is high authority for the statement that " the purity of the Guilford
county ore is absolute, none of it containing either sulphur or phosphorus. As
to the titanium, its presence makes no difficulty under judicious furnace manage-
ment. As to its quantity, centuries of heavy mining could not exhaust it."
In three analyses of the ore of Great Bend and in the vicinity of tlie Pilot
Mountain, there was of sulphur, none; of phosphorus, 0.04, 0.05, 0.04.
Manufacturing.
We are treating now of a new country, awakened to a progressive life less
than a year ago, and its advancement in milling, manufacturing and other
pursuits is yet to come. Though inferior to that of the Cape Fear and Deep
River sections, the water-power of this division is extensive and unfailing.
The Ararat and its tributary creeks would more than supply the motive power
for dozens of mills supporting a population of thousands.
THE MADISON BRANCH.
From Stokesdale a branch of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway
has been nearly completed to Madison, in Rockingham county, giving facilities
of freight and travel to that flourishing town and to a country rich in grain
resources and tobacco. The bridge across the river is rapidly constructing, and
trains will be running into Madison by the 1st of June, 1889, although there
has been for four months a regular schedule taking freight and passengers
up to the banks of the river.
WALNUT COVE.
No place on the line has evinced a more gratifying spirit of progress than
Walnut Cove, and its improvement in every branch of business and industry
is very noticeable. It has the good fortune to possess citizens of energy, who
know the advantages vouchsafed to them and are prompt to utilize them.
Besides a considerable mercantile trade, the tobacco business employs many
operatives, and puts in circulation a large amount of ready money in the
payment of wages. Tanneries, flour and grist mills, &c., are also thriving
industries at this point. Walnut Cove offers the right sort of welcome to
the stranger in an excellent hotel, than which no town can have a better
advertisement.
Connection between Winston and Walnut Cove has been recently made
by the Roanoke and Southern Railroad, the contemplated extension of which
leads it via Martinsville to Roanoke, Va.
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 97
DANBURY.
Hardly a town in the State can clierish more reasonable hopes of a bright
future than Danbury, in Stokes county, distant eleven miles from the Cape
Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway. The energies of those thrifty people find
employment in a good general merchandise business, besides that accruing from
the output of numerous large tobacco factories, tanneries, flour and corn mills,
and the building which the progress of the town demands.
The tributary' country is productive, but wild, broken and precipitous, and
one would feel no surprise at the catastrophe which might happen to a farmer
of this region, like that related by jNIark Twain of the Swiss agriculturist on
the Alps, who, while hoeing in his field, fell ofT his farm and broke his neck.
But it is a "diamond in the rough," for the earths bosom heaves tumultuously
in the plenitude of its hidden wealth. Immense deposits exist here of iron,
limestone, asbestos, mica, soapstone, lead, potter's clay, plumbago, berj-l, S:c.
This profusion of mineral resources, as they are fully developed, cannot fail to
make that region populous and prosperous, establishing and multiplying all
kinds of manufacturing industries.
PIEDMONT SPRINGS.
Between two and three miles from Danbury are Piedmont Springs, with
chalybeate waters of very fine curative qualities. This is a delightful resort,
attracting crowds of visitors, both of invalids who seek the restoration of health,
and of those who desire to participate in its many social pleasures and attrac-
tions. The new Piedmont Hotel was ready for the reception of guests on
the 15th of May, 1889 — an elegant structure of imposing exterior, and fitted
up with all the conveniences pertaining to the best modern hotels.
Moore's alum and iron spring in the same vicinity has also for years been
esteemed by hundreds who have tested the efficacy of its waters.
GERMANTON.
Germanton is a pretty town, beautifully located, and affording ample
evidences of the thrift}- and progressive spirit of its people. It draws a lucrative
trade from a good farming section, and its tobacco business is especially large
and daily increasing. Saw and planing mills, flour and grist mills, and several
lime-kilns are busy and profitable industries. The Germanton people take
pride in their town and the great advantages of their section ; the social
attractions and school and church facilities of the place are fine.
Near Germanton are very extensive beds of the best limestone, nov/
worked at an excellent profit. The following analysis was furnished in 18S6
98 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
by Dr. Charles W. Dabney, director of the North Carohna Experiment
Station : —
Carbonate of Lime 95-07
Matter insoluble in acids 4.93
Summerfield, Stokesdale, Belcw's Creek, Rural Hall, Dalton, Pinnacle, Pilot
Mountain, Ararat, are all thriving stations — shipping points for tobacco, timber,
mineral ores and country products. Rural Hall has recently been connected
with Winston by the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which will doubtless
accomplish much in the development of the surrounding country.
MOUNT AIRY.
Mount Airy, the present western terminus of the Cape Fear and Yadkin
Valley Railway, is in Surry county, within five miles of the nearest point on
the base of the Blue Ridge, with an elevation of about eleven hundred feet
above sea level. Long a thriving village and the trade centre of a large and
prosperous agricultural community, its growth and increase in business, indus-
trial enterprises and population have been almost unprecedented since 1880,
the census of which year gave it a population of five hundred and nineteen,
increased during the past eight years to fifteen hundred.
This gratifying progress has been especially noticeable during the past four
or five years, when the completion of the road to Greensboro, and its steady
extension onward, gave the people of this section an undeniable guarantee of
speedy railway connection with Middle and Eastern North Carolina and the
great world beyond. They set their house in order for its coming, and the old
political shibboleth of "the mountains ablaze" was exchanged for the better
one of the fires kindled in the factories and machine-shops along the mountain-
sides ;■ the simplicit}' of rural life did not draw them aloof from the oppor-
tunities of material advancement, and the grandeur of their abiding-place and
the copious gifts of nature enlarged their views, for —
"Serene, not sullen, even the solitudes
Of this unsighing people of the woods."
Mercantile business straightway received a forward impetus; building lots
were in eager demand at enhanced prices; the tools of the architect and
artisan were plied without ceasing; hotel accommodations were enlarged and
improved ; the prospect of accessibility to the great outside markets was a
stimulus to the agriculture of the tributary region, and the railway celebra-
tion of June 20th, 1888, assembled thousands of visitors to behold a goodly
flourishing town, with regular thoroughfares, handsome residences and blocks
of commodious stores.
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKJX VALLEY RAIUVAY.
To-day, the industries of Mt. Airy and the vicinity embrace four cotton
factories, three woolen mills, eleven tobacco factories (including cigars), four
tobacco sales-warehouses, three wagon factories, four grist and four saw mills,
machine and blacksmith shops, &c.
The future prosperity of Mt. Airy is to be commensurate with the
extent to which its people utilize the facilities for manufacturing within
their reach. Almost within the corporate limits of the town, on Ararat
River and Stewart's and LovelTs Creeks, are eight water-powers of from
fourteen to eighteen feet head, and ample volume of water, furnishing in
the aggregate from ten hundred to twelve hundred horse-power. Laurel
Bluff Cotton Mills, situated a little more than a mile from town, runs two
thousand spindles and forty-five looms, manufacturing plaids and warp-yarn,
and employing fifty-five operatives — native labor. The brick for the building
was made on the spot from the cla}- taken from the excavation ; wood is
placed at the door at one dollar per cord ; satisfactory hands can be ob-
tained at fort}- cents per day ; and, although the cotton is bought in Char-
lotte and Fayetteville, this mill can afford to make its goods at prices that
would be unprofitable under less favorable conditions.
As a summer resort JNIt. Airy cannot fail to gain most favorable notice
and win popularity with tourists as each year goes by. The salubrity of the
climate, whose breezes, cooled on the rarefied heights of peak and knob and
lofty ridge, come laden with the healthful balsamic odors of the mountain
fir and pine ; the matchless scenery of towering, blue-curtained height, deep
valley, rock-girt ravine and embowered glade ; the profusion of creature
comforts — rich cream and butter, fresh meats, poultry, fruits and vegetables —
all render this an abode of restful ease and enjoyment.
The new Blue Ridge Hotel, with a front of one hundred and twent)--
five feet, containing about one hundred rooms, embellished with even,- at-
traction and furnished with every convenience, will be ready for the reception
of health and pleasure seekers by the opening of the summer season of 18S9.
FLAT ROCK.
Distant but a short ride from Mt. Airy is " Flat Rock," a wonder of
nature in this land teeming with objects of interest. A magnificent bed of
granite nearly fort}- acres in extent lies above the surface of the earth,
ready to the hand and tool of the workman. The stone splits in great
slabs, and is quarried with remarkable ease and little expense, without the
aid of blasting powder. Immense quantities are daily transported over the
line of railway to different points for building, masonry, paving, &c. A year
or tu-o ago a single piece of this stone was worked out from the quarry
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
ninety-two feet in length, but this lias been recently excelled b)' an unbroken
monolith one hundred and fourteen feet long.
Every cubic foot of masonry for the magnificent iron bridge o\-er the
Cape Fear River at Faj-etteville, more than one-eighth of a mile in length,
is transported the distance of one hundred and sixt}'-seven miles from a
splendid quarry near Flat Rock .iiid more convenient to the railroad.
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS.
About midway between ^It. .\iry and the foot of the Blue Ridge are
the "^Vhite Sulphur Springs," offering comfortable hotel buildings, good
rooms and wholesome fare, and the}' are liberally patronized by those who
appreciate the medicinal efficac}' o{ the water, an analj'sis of which is very
.similar to that of the famous Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs of Virginia.
The tobacco lands of this immediate section are unsurpassed, the grasses
grow luxuriantly, fine crops of corn are raised on the alluvial soil along the
streams, and the small grains give excellent harvests. No finer apple can be
found in any market than that produced here, while the " Mt. Air}'
cabbage" (grown on the Blue Ridge slopes) is already eagerly inquired for
in the Wilmington, Fa}'etteville and Greensboro markets.
Wheeler, in his history, credits Holman's Ford, near Wilkesboro, with the
honor of being the home of Daniel Boone, the great Kentucky pioneer; but
the Surry people insist that here at least was his hunting-ground and the
scene of man}' of his exploits. Certain it is that the old inhabitants have
stored in memoi-}-, through tradition and story, minute accounts of the prowess
and skill of Boone, Findley, Monay, Holden and their comrades.
Within a few miles of this pleasant town married, lived and died the
Siamese. T«ins, leaving children \\\\o are now reputable citizens of the
community, but who exhibit very plaiiil}' the Mongol type in face, form and
mental characteristics. This will be of interest to the curious reader, as
illustrating the strange vicissitudes of fortune in this life : Taken from the
semi-barbarism of the Southern Pacific Ocean, to be the wonder of gaping
crowds and the stud}- of scientific men, these strange beings ended life in
right orthodox fashion — having consummated marriage under Christian ordi-
nances, and passed }'ears of prosaic existence as well-to-do mountain farmers
in one of the commonwealths of the most enlighteiied republic on earth. -7
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AbLh.N !■ IJI- I'IN.NACLE Ol' I'lLOT MOVNTAIN.
Scenery oj" tl]e t^oUte.
ATURE, which has been so lavish of her bounties through all the
great area of territory traversed by the Cape Fear and Yadkin
Valley Railway — his own prolific " \'ine and fig tree" to the
patriarch, bursting sheaves of golden grain to the sower and reaper,
the dashing water-ways of a smiling land to the spinner and weaver, and for
the miner the heaped-up treasures of the earth's bosom — has interwoven with
all charming pictures of mountain, glade, forest and coast.
A ride of an hour or two from its eastern terminus, b}- rail, steamer or
carriage, places the tra\-eler in the presence of the ocean's sublimity and
" boundless immensity ; " while, so far away that they seem as white-winged,
fluttering birds, spreading sails ride upon the billows, and steamers plow
broad furrows through the briny way. Beyond the dazzling white sand,
and far away across the outjutting strips of salt marsh, lie the dismantled
battlements and casemates of Forts Fisher and Caswell, where the drows}'
sentinel dozed away his watch in the "piping times of peace," or cordons of
bombarding ships, breached walls and thousands of tons of hissing, hurtling
shells emphasized the terrible magnificence of war.
For miles be\-ond Wilmington the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railwaj-
runs through the " low country," where grow the water, live and white oaks,
of sturdy trunk and wide-spreading branches, draped in the gray river moss,
whose light, graceful festoons sway softly with ever}- passing wind. Splendid
groves of this beautiful tree are common throughout this region, never without
these fleecy wreaths of moss, and the effect is indescribably pleasing.
The gloom of dense morass and impenetrable swamp which fringe the copi-
ous streams that water this division is relieved by the luxuriant growth of plant
and clinging vine, which in summer charm the eye with the bright colors of
innumerable wild flowers and fill the air with fragrance. The sweet bay and,
more rarely, the magnolia are found throughout all these lowland forests.
MOORE'S CREEK BATTLE-GROUND.
On the line of the road, in New Hanover County, near the mouth of Moore's
Creek, is the battle-ground of that name, where, on the 27th of February, 1776,
the Royalists were so severely defeated by an inferior force under Colonels Cas-
well and Lillington. In this engagement Captain McDonald, the husband of
(105)
I06 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY,
Flora, was taken prisoner — the first stroke of hapless fortune which followed
them to the end, and prompted Flora McDonald to exclaim that she "had
served, at the risk of life, both the House of Stuart and the House of Hanover,
and was not much'the gainer by either."
The country embraced in the upper Cape Fear and Deep River sections is
without notable and striking beauties of scencr}', beyond the great stretches of
noble forests, the winding streams, and the broad acres of a thrifty agricultural
people. Utterly lacking in the picturesque, the long-leaf pine, to the stranger
beholding it for the first time, is invested with a peculiar interest. A great
orchard or plantation (as it is called) of pine worked for turpentine possesses
singular features belonging to it alone. The great height of the trees, with
their resinous trunks and boxes ; their remarkable regularity, which permits
long vistas of perspective through the forest ; the strange bunches of needles
(the pine's sole foliage), which repeat the "song of the wind" in a soft, mur-
muring sough, have upon the eye and the imagination a pleasant and soothing
effect.
GUILFORD BATTLE-GROUND.
Five miles west of Greensboro is the battle-ground of Guilford Court-house,
where, on the 15th of March, 1781, Gen. Nathaniel Greene and his army met
the forces of Cornwallis in a hard-fought engagement, which destroyed the
foothold of British power in this State, and was the beginning of the end of
the prestige and supremacy of British arms in America. To a distinguished
and patriotic citizen of the city of Greensboro the people of North Carolina are
indebted for invaluable service in rescuing the fame of our troops on that field
from unmerited reproach — service which has been recognized by an annual
appropriation to the battle-ground by the General Assembly of the State, to be
followed probably by a still larger appropriation for a monument by the United
States Government. The battle-ground is kept in admirable order, and is
beautified with monuments, shaded walks, gushing springs, neat cottages, a
museum of revolutionary relics, &c. The stirring events which render the spot
historic are annually celebrated in May by a grand pageant and oration.
PILOT MOUNTAIN.
Nearly mid«-a}' on the line of the Piedmont and Mountain Division is the
Pilot Mountain, with an altitude of twenty-four hundred and fifty-eight feet,
whose summit is capped by the Pinnacle, an irregular cylindrical or truncated
cone-shaped mass of rock with a surface area of about half an acre. The Pilot
is divided into two parts — cleft asunder, doubtless, by some convulsion of nature
in past ages, the lesser mountain merging gradually into the hills beyond. The
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. IO9
ascent to the Pinnacle is easy, and the latter is mounted b\- stone steps and
hidders ; during the dizzy chnib the guide does not fail to tell you that fair
woman comes to the accomplishment of this feat of the tourist with a leveler
head than protecting man ; she rarely fails to mount to the top, while her
escort, as often as not, surveys the towering height — and takes his seat at the
base to await the return of the party. Accompan}'ing illustrations give beautiful
views of the mountain from different points on the road. Piloting the Indian,
in centuries past, through the trackless wilds of his hunting-grounds, standing-
alone in nature's vast expanse, it still keeps watch and ward over hamlet, vil-
lage and field — the fruits of a civilization which has brought the steel rail and
the rushing train, pacing its passing tribute in the long trail of the engine's
smoke that floats upward and curtains its rugged sides.
The Suaratown Mountains lie off to the right of the Cape Fear and
Yadkin Valley Railway — a range of lofty hills presenting varied and charm-
ing pictures of the graceful, beautiful and picturesque.
ARARAT RIVER.
Here the scenery assumes a character of wild and rugged grandeur which
finds its counterpart only in the majestic pictures of the transmontane region.
The road winds through deep cuts and precipitous defiles, hugging the sides
of the hills—
"Rock-ribbed and ancient as the snn,"
and flanked by the Ararat River's tortuous channel and rocky bed. Engi-
neering skill has here triumphed over wonderful obstacles, and the traveler
is struck b\- the many points of similarity presented by this portion of the
route and parts of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad beyond the " Horse-
shoe."
THE BLUE RIDGE.
The present western terminus of the road offers a grand view of the
main chain of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which to the north have a height
of nearl}- three-fourths of a mile; two miles distant is the beautiful Slate
Mountain, and, farther on, Little Mountain, a great spur from the main
range ; to the southeast the beauties of the Suaratown Mountains charm
the eye as the mists of morning clear awa\', and the Pilot looms grandl}-
in the distance.
The extension of the Cape Fear and Yadkin \'alle}" Railwa)', and its
connection with the Norfolk and Western beyond the State line, will furnish
to the vo\'ager the scenerj' of a wild mountain country in its perfection, and
the surmounting and passage of the Blue Ridge will carry him through the
wonders attending the construction of railway umler such circumstances as
uill find their parallel in those about Round Knob.
l^eCGipituloition.
HE compiler of this work has followed the line of the Cape Fear and
Yadkin Valle\- Railway from tidewater to the foot of the Blue
Ridge, noting carefully and gathering steadily in his examination
of the resources of the country developed by the line. Except
where he has felt justified in using approximate figures in his estimate of the
increase of population since the last census, he has aimed to deal only in plain
facts, and if there is aught inaccurate or untrue within these pages, he does
not know of it. That the road is well worthy of the important place assigned
to it by the people of North Carolina among the great internal improvements
of the South, is shown by the following summary of statistical information : —
It leads from northwest to southeast, through a belt of nineteen counties,
sustaining a population of 363,572, embraced in a territorj' of 12,759 square
miles, or 8,165,760 square acres, improved and unimproved, with a total tax val-
uation of $22,933,045, and a real and personal property valuation of §48,572,417.
The rate of taxation in this State is remarkably low ; were it anything like that
of the Eastern and Middle States, the above figures would be increased from
$22,933,045 to at least §45,000,000, and from §48,572,417 to §60,000,000.
This broad domain grows an infinite variety of agricultural products: corn,
wheat, rye, oats (of which the midland and western sections raise a surplus),
rice, peanuts, Irish and sweet potatoes, field-peas, chufas, sorghum, cotton,
tobacco, and every garden vegetable produced from one end of the Atlantic
coast to the other. Of fruits, the whole region is especially prolific : the pome-
granate, white and blue fig, a greater number of distinct species of grapes than
can be found in any other Southern State, apricots, nectarines, the Japan plum,
apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, delicious melons, and all the small fruits
in profusion. So diversified are the products throughout the extent of the line,
and so marked are the climatic differences, that an agreeable and profitable
interchange of commodities is possible between the people of one region and
the other — those of the tidewater and low countrj' tendering to their friends of
the Piedmont and mountain section the first fruits of their labors in early spring,
vegetables of all kinds, while yet stern nature holds locked in her embrace
forest and field and glade of the up-country. Thence shall come, when the
earlier seasons of the coast have brought their treasures and passed awa\', the
("3)
114 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILwJ^.
offerings quickened into luxuriant growth by mountain breeze and clime : ap-
ples, pears, peaches, cherries, the Blue Ridge cabbage (the finest in the world),
and the dairy products of this goodly land.
The strides made in manufacturing have been rapid ; but, in comparison
with the magnificent possibilities furnished by the water-power along the line,
the establishment of the different branches of skilled industry may be said to
have hardly commenced. Besides cotton milling, the almost inexhaustible forest
area renders easy and feasible the manufacture of nearly everything useful in
wood : wheels, hubs, spokes, handles, shuttles, buckets, furniture, the wooden
gear of agricultural implements, and, in fine, all the woodenwares entering into
the daily domestic and business emploj'ments of man. Iron and coal — the
quality and quantity of which have been attested by unimpeachable authority —
offer abundant material and unusual facilities for the establishment of found-
ries and the manufacture of car and carriage wheels and axles, plows, axes, the
different tools of the artisan, &c.
Collateral advantages combine to make this one of the favored manufactu-
ring districts of the world : the raw material is easy of access by the mills; fuel
can be obtained at a merely nominal price at the doors of the factories ; the
general mildness of the climate admits of uninterrupted labor all the year round;
there is no restless element, infected by " strikes " and fomenting discontent ;
an intelligent population are quick to learn the trades, and are soon adepts at
the loom, the spindle and the engine-wheel.
The writer was careful to question the proprietors of the different mills
herein described as to whether native labor was employed, and whether it was
satisfactory, and in nearly every instance an affirmative reply has been given.
Minerals.
Red and brown sandstone, a superior quality of granite, soapstone, gold,
coal and iron exist in quarries, beds, mines, deposits and ranges in the two
upper divisions of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway — the last two
not only of paramount importance in their application to the useful arts of
man, but constantly demanded in all his industrial avocations and the round
of his daily life. What may we not expect in the future from the full
utilization of the unparalleled riches of this section !
Timber Resources.
Nearly all the different kinds of timber found in the shipyards of the
great markets of this country grow immediately upon or contiguous to the
line of this railway : the pine (alone worth millions of dollars annually in
r
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY.
lumber and naval stores), all the species of oak, cedar, holly, cherry, cypress,
juniper, hickor)-, dogwood, walnut, sycamore, persimmon, elm, gum, chestnut,
beech, locust, ash, maple and other less important woods.
The lesser plant flora is also rich and varied, the lower counties produc-
ing many shrubs and flowers, which make it one of the most remunerative
honey-producing sections of North Carolina, while in the mountainous counties
are found many valuable medicinal herbs, which are gathered in veiy con-
siderable quantity, and constitute a profitable industry.
A Great Commercial Highway.
No better summing-up could be made of the " natural indications of this
route as the necessarj- track of a commercial highway" than by the following
terse quotation from an esteemed authority : —
" It is the shortest line to the head of navigation (and outlet by sea) for
almost the whole middle and Piedmont regions of the State. This has
been, and always must be, a most weighty consideration in settling the per-
manent channels of traffic. It lies, its whole length, through a region whose
climate never affects traffic for a day in the year. It crosses at right angles
three great north and south railroad lines, and so makes them also feeders
to its freight supplies."
Inducements for Investment.
In all the nineteen counties included in this route good farming lands
can be procured at from five dollars 'to twenty dollars per acre. Excellent
water-powers are to be obtained at reasonable figures, while in the cities,
towns and villages real estate is held at moderate prices. Almost univer-
sally good water, a salubrious climate, a satisfactoiy system of hired labor,
law-abiding and intelligent communities, enjoying as good church and school
advantages as limited means and a sparse population will permit — all com-
bine to make this an attractive land and a pleasant home to the industrious
settler from any quarter of the globe.
"T^l]e "Tran^montane E^^ten^ion,
AVING accomplished this great work within the borders of the
State ; almost tracking the sands of the coast at its eastern
terminus; traversing the bottoms and gently undulating uplands
of the Cape Fear section ; pushing aside the obstacles of boulder
and rock through the rugged midland region, and climbing undauntedly
onward up to the crowning, lofty gateway leading into the great valley of the
West ; having at length brought to its fruition the Cape Fear and Yadkin
Valley system : — shall the barriers of mountain and gorge stay its further
progress ? Shall not, rather, the aggressive Western civilization hail its
coming, and greet its forward movement with connections to the great highway
of travel and traffic on to Cincinnati ?
But a few miles remain between the present western terminus of the road
and the State line, beyond which it is placed in direct communication with a
broad valley, or, rather, a succession of valleys of wonderful fertility, immense
resources and vast natural wealth. Meeting it from the rich pasture and stock-
raising lands of Southwest Virginia, the Norfolk and Western Railroad
would carry it on to the treasures of a country fairer, if possible, in East
Tennessee, whence further connections would open to its transportation the
almost untouched riches of Southeastern Kentucky. To him who has but
cursorily glanced at the products of this "full-blooded heart of the continent,"
the bare statement of facts must seem the language of extravagance. Occupy-
ing an area equal in extent to one-fifth of the territory of North Carolina, the
coal fields of Eastern Kentucky, with all the fertile and diversified region,
including Southwest Virginia, are reasonably sure to become the centre of a
great iron industry. Extensive deposits of coal, in beds ranging from fifteen to
twenty feet in thickness, in conjunction with immense ranges of iron ore, cannot
fail to make this a country abounding in varied and profitable industries.
But this is only a tithe of the wealth awaiting utilization and development
in this fair valley. While from its skirts ascends the smoke of hundreds of
smelting furnaces, it holds in its lap a granary for almost a world's consumption.
The agricultural products seem to be without limit. Corn and all the small
grains, the products of the dairy and the orchard, besides salt, plaster and great
droves of fine horses, mules and cattle — now conveyed by toilsome means and
(ii8)
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN VALLEY RAILIVAY. I I9
roundabout ways to the extreme Southern States and the Northern markets —
would then furnish all the year through an amount of freight which would tax
the most extensive railwa\' transportation facilities, for this route would offer the
most speedy and direct transit to the Atlantic slope and the seacoast.
The unfinished part of the line of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Rail-
wa\- is by an excellent route of about five miles to the State border, and
connection will probably be made with the Norfolk and Western Railroad at
Willis' Gap. When once this direct communication is made, it must inevitably
be followed by connections which will graft it permanently upon the great chain
of railway lines extending through the Cumberland Valley to Louisville and
Knoxville, and onward to the great Western States by the South Atlantic and
Ohio and Charleston, Cumberland Gap and Chicago Railroads.
When we take into consideration the mineral wealth abounding throughout
the great plateau of Western North Carolina, either on the line of the Cape Fear
and" Yadkin Valley Railway or within eas}' connection thereto : — the vast mag-
netite iron ranges, including the rich and extensive Cranberry deposits, and
extending eastward to the great beds of Stokes, Guilford and Chatham — the
great industries to be speedilj- developed by the transmontane extension will
find their parallel only in the most flourishing manufacturing districts of the
country. The demand for coke in the manufacture of iron and steel — often
hitherto transported from one thousand to twelve hundred miles to the smelting
furnaces — is increasing year by year in tremendous ratio, and the western exten-
sion lays the shortest and quickest line of rail between coal bed and iron deposit,
bringing together by eas}^ transportation all the materials for the successive
steps of iron and steel manufacture.
In the preparation and arrangement of these pages the difficulty has been
not to gather material, but to summarize and compress that material into con-
venient form ; an "embarrassment of riches" rather than a poverty of resources
meets the compiler of the great and diversified resources developed by the Cape
Fear and Yadkin ^"alley Railway. Do not the abundant facts presented justify
the claim that no road in the South offers superior advantages or holds out
brighter promise of progress and prosperity to the region through which it
passes ? Judicious investment of capital in manufacturing enterprises for the
utilization of the varied resources of this favored land will make bustling cities
of the towns, and thriving towns of the villages and hamlets which dot the line
of road from border to border of the State ; immigration will bring an indus-
trious population to augment the wealth and producing power of thrifty com-
munities; and the near future will bring the realization of the long-cherished
dream of the completion of the
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